'Great Eights' Lift Web Market

Just as sheetfed printers began adding more color units to their presses several years ago, there's a small but growing trend among web operations to do the same.

The trend started in the Los Angeles area, where a clutch of high-quality web offset printers compete intensively; there, seven high-visibility shops are operating so-called "long" webs, eight-color machines that lay down heavy ink coverage at up to 2,000 feet per minute. (Actually, "eight-color" is a misnomer; since the webs are blanket-to-blanket perfectors, they're capable of applying a total of 16 colors to the paper in a single pass.)

The trend has since moved eastward to New Jersey, where another high-quality web printer has ordered its first eight-unit press, scheduled for delivery this summer.

"There's a definite growth in web presses with eight printing units," says Ed Binder, Anderson Lithograph's vice president and director of operations. "In 1999, we were the first printer in the U.S. to install an eight-color machine. By the end of this year, we understand, there will be eight installations of eight-unit webs, supplied not only by MAN Roland but Heidelberg and Mitsubishi as well. Most are in the LA market."

One of those competitors is Lithographix Inc.

"I think we're simply a bunch of printers out on the West Coast that like to push the envelope," says George Wolden, vice president of manufacturing for Lithographix. "We've certainly moved more aggressively here with eight-color webs than printers have in other parts of the country. Having Anderson install the first one benefits us, I think, because an ad agency no longer has to rely on only one printer. Now it can design an eight-color web job and not be stuck getting a bid from just one printer."

Last fall, George Rice & Sons/Quebecor World joined its competitors and installed an eight-unit, single-web press in its 290,000-square-foot facility in Los Angeles. George Rice/Quebecor configured its gapless Sunday 2000 press from Heidelberg as a 24-page (six-wide) machine, a format that—compared to a conventional 16-page press, says Heidelberg—provides 50% more productivity and potentially one-third fewer makereadies.

The new press, which has cylinders that are 57 wide, is rated to run at 2,000 feet per minute (fpm).

Heidelberg installed another Sunday 2000 in the LA market, this one an eight-unit, 16-page web being operated by Graphic Press, Anaheim.

In the meantime, George Wolden's company, Lithographix, started up an eight-color Diamond 16Z web from Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses in January. Lithographix, a 50-year-old, privately held high-quality sheetfed and web commercial printer, caters to high-end print buyers; its LA facility posts sales of $95 million, its plant in Carlsbad, Calif. bills $15 million, and its latest acquisition, in San Mateo in the San Francisco Bay Area, accounts for $18 million in sales.

"We were the first to install Mitsubishi's GCX six-unit web five years ago," Wolden notes, "and now we're expanding that press to eight colors, too. Why, when we already have a large sheetfed division with five eight-colors? Because a lot of print projects require eight colors, whether it's for a sheetfed or web press. That's the direction we're headed."

In addition to having more color units, Lithographix chose the new web for gains in run length and substrate choice. "We can run as few as 50,000 copies on the web," says Wolden, "but we'd rather be up in range of 75,000 to 100,000 copies. The makeready is fast and paper is cost effective."

He adds, "I am often asked what determines whether a job runs web or sheetfed. Run length and substrate selection are the basic criteria, but then these factors are subject to revision. For example, sheetfed run length can exceed 100,000 if the substrate is not available for a web or not usable with heatset technology, such as plastics, foils, or heavyweight papers.

"Also, factors like color, resolution, screen ruling, and film density—essentially prepress-dependent issues—are substrate driven and treated the same at Lithographix with either web and/or sheetfed printing."

Of the Diamond 16Z's unique seamed blanket, Wolden remarks, "I consider this a technological breakthrough that has really changed the ball game. While it took a drawn-out process to make it, now that Mitsubishi has it, the blanket has opened a whole new gamut to seamed technology. You can hardly see the seam and it doesn't slip on the cylinder. Nor does it allow much heat build-up as other blankets tend to do. I think this new blanket has slipped past many people's radar."

First to capitalize on eight-color web printing was Anderson Lithograph, a 390-employee operation that is now part of Mail-Well, Inc. In January 1999, Anderson installed an eight-unit MAN Roland web, an installation so successful that the company added a second MAN Roland eight-color in July 2000.

"We saw the growing market in sheetfed for additional colors," says VP Ed Binder. "It was more and more common to see four-, five-, and six-color sheetfeds being replaced with machines with nine, 10, 11, and even now 12 press units. We saw the potential of an eight-unit web press and we were right."

With its extra color units, Anderson began printing annual reports for Fortune 500 firms, including Coca-Cola, IBM, and Motorola. High-end catalogs became another prospect, especially for Anderson's automotive clients such as Ford and Toyota. In addition, high-end inserts for such publications as People and Time magazines required extra colors and varnishes, making them ideal products for the MAN Roland webs.

"In web printing, we're unique," says Binder. "In years past, web printing always had the rap of not quite reaching the quality of sheetfed. But we run a higher density of ink on our web presses; now I turn the claim around and say that we print as well on our sheetfeds as we do on our webs."

While Anderson prides itself on high-quality web printing, it's still a challenge to print an eight-color job. "With web printing, we're chasing a moving target at 2,000 feet per minute," says Binder. "The registration has to be right on. But we have a skilled, well-established work force that understands what needs to be done."

Having so many eight-color webs in the Los Angeles area offers only positive benefits to Anderson. "On the sales side, there is a lot of competition," says Binder. "but we feel with more printers offering eight-color web printing, there will be more work generated. Designers will sit up and take notice. Besides, we've seen only four start-ups in the last two months in LA, plus a couple of units added to a fifth press."

Meanwhile, on the other coast, Sandy Alexander, which claims to be the country's largest independent high-quality commercial printing company, has purchased an eight-unit, single-web MAN Roland Rotoman press. Sandy Alexander is headquartered in Clifton, N.J.

The new press is a 16-page, 1:1 web equipped with a variety of optional features and rated at 60,000 iph. There's Power Plate Loading for quick makeready and plate changes, an in-line UV coater capable of spot or overall coating on two sides, and QTI's CCS color control system with Instrument Flight from System Brunner. Sandy Alexander is the first printer in the world to incorporate Instrument Flight on a web press.

A unique feature of the new Rotoman will be its folding capabilities. "Over the past several years, we have become a preeminent producer of high-quality advertising inserts," says Roy Grossman, president of Sandy Alexander. "With this press, we can offer the advertising community up to eight colors plus nearly every imaginable multi-page insert configuration, including six-page gatefolds and double-gatefolds."

While eight-unit models are the fastest-growing segment of the web market, manufacturers continue to introduce new features or presses. Still, the web market is resembling the sheetfed market in a slowdown of sales.

"During the past six months, web printers have continued to look at equipment but delayed their orders," reports George A. Sanchez, Mitsubishi's director of sales and marketing for web presses. "In our view, concerns over the strength of the economy, the current stock market fluctuations, and anxiety over capital expenditures are causing a lull. Will it be a short-term or long-term situation? That's hard to predict."

Heidelberg Web Systems markets the Sunday 2000, 3000, and 4000 heatset webs featuring gapless blankets, pinless folders, and shaftless drives. To date, Heidelberg has installed more than 1,000 Sunday press units worldwide. The Sunday 3000, which prints up to 100,000 impressions per hour, is designed for long-run catalog and publication printing.

This year, Heidelberg is introducing the Sunday 3000i, a modified version that's the first gapless press designed specifically for insert printing.

The vendor reports that the Sunday 2000, introduced in 2000, is rapidly gaining market share in the high-quality commercial and publication sectors. It is available in 16- and 24-page formats and its makeready features are said to be well-suited for shorter runs and fast changeovers. Several initial customers of the Sunday 2000 are now installing presses for six-, seven-, and eight-color printing.

Heidelberg also offers a 48- and 64-page Sunday 4000 press for high-pagination printing. These models are especially popular in European markets. Sales for presses with conventional technology, including the 16-page M-600 and M-130, are also strong in North America.

Last year, Heidelberg introduced a dryer called the Ecocool, which combines drying and chill roll functions in a single unit. In addition to reducing the overall length of a press system, this integrated design improves print quality by eliminating the condensation on the web that can occur between the dryer and the chill rolls.

MAN Roland shipped its second Lithoman insert press in early April to a printer that wishes to remain anonymous. The first such press, with 66" web width and 42" cylinder circumference, was to be shipped not long ago to the Carrollton, Tex. facility of Rhodes Printing Group, which is headquartered in Charlestown, Ind.

Installation of both presses is to be completed this summer, with start-up in late summer.

Also, two other orders took place in April. MAN Roland signed a contract for delivery of a special Lithoman Book Version web press to an undisclosed North American book printer; the four-around, six-across press with custom folder superstructure will be installed early next year. In addition, MAN Roland shipped the first 24-page (two pages around, six pages across) Rotoman S web sleeve press to Quad/Graphics.

Later this year, Komori plans to introduce the System 38S, a 16-page press with a format size of 23x38". The fully automated press, displayed at the Drupa 2000 show in Germany last spring with a European cutoff, is presently available in Europe and Japan.

The System 38S is equipped with automatic plate changers, automated folder product changeover, ink key preset software, individual ink and water tracking curves per color, and CIP4 interface. At Drupa, according to Komori, operators demonstrated the press's fast makeready capabilities by performing complete makereadies in less than seven minutes.