Eight-Page Webs Fill Market Niche

When sheetfed printers move into the web market, oftentimes the press of choice is an eight-page web. Not as large and labor intensive as a full-size, 16-page web, eight-page webs do provide longer-run capabilities and efficiencies over a sheetfed press yet offer the versatility and greater ease of use than a standard-size web.

"As recently as five or 10 years ago, printers deciding between a sheetfed press and a half-web press often chose sheetfed because the print quality was superior," says Greg Norris, Heidelberg Web Systems' manager of marketing communications. "Now the newer half-webs combine the advantages of web production with print quality that competes favorably with that of a sheetfed press."

While half-webs still tend to focus on a particular niche—unlike full webs that serve publication, catalog, and commercial applications—the market segment remains a bright spot in the overall industry.

"To be frank, we've had a burst of activity," reports Dr. Terry L. Bradley, technical director of Komori America Corporation. "This part of the market has belonged almost exclusively to sheetfed printers, but we're starting to see more growth."

For its part, Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses believes that education is the key to growth in the eight-page web market. "We feel we need to inform prospective customers about eight-page webs," says George A. Sanchez, Mitsubishi's director of sales and marketing for commercial web presses.

Sanchez adds, "The economic benefits of a half-size web are there, as is print and product quality, plus an eight-page web can nicely complement a sheetfed pressroom. But I have to admit that our orders have not been in line with what we projected."

Mitsubishi markets its eight-page webs to two classes of prospects: existing users that need to upgrade their equipment, and printers considering the sheetfed-to-web conversion. Sanchez explains, "A lot of printers with 40" sheetfeds that compare the economics decide that an eight-page web makes sense, but I think concern about the market and the economy makes them anxious. The capital expenditure is bigger than they're used to, as is the visibility."

Adds Norris of Heidelberg, "An eight-page press is half as productive as a 16-page press, but the price difference is only about 25%. Therefore, while a very small minority of sheetfed printers may buy half-web presses as an entree into the web market, most half-web presses are purchased because the format makes the most economic sense given the printer's product mix."

Nonetheless, an eight-page web is the perfect fit for many printers.

Come September, Nies/Artcraft, a general commercial printer located in St. Louis, Mo., will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in style. The firm specializes in one- to six-color web and sheetfed printing, prepress, data management, bindery, and fullfillment services. The 175-employee shop has been experiencing fast growth.

"In the past year, we've added 100 new customers," says Gary Wooldridge, vice president of Nies/Artcraft. "Our annual sales have grown from $20 million in September 1995 to $30 million this year. We're much busier than many printers in St. Louis."

Last summer, the company, which provides Fortune 500 firms with catalogs, packaging, and even printing on plastic, added a new Komori System 20 web to its pressroom, which also includes a 14"-wide Didde Apollo MCP six-color web, a 40² six-color Komori sheetfed with aqueous coating, and three Heidelberg Speedmasters: a 40" five-color with aqueous coating, a 29" five-color with aqueous coating, and a 29" two-color. A Heidelberg Quickmaster DI 46-4 press arrived this spring.

"We wanted more interaction between prepress and press," says Wooldridge, "so we sold an eight-page Harris M-110 short-grain web to accommodate the new Komori web. Our thinking is that Komori has a strong relationship with Scitex, which we could use to build a digital network with the press's CIP3 feature between the prepress and press."

The System 20 press has enabled Nies/Artcraft to produce a dozen different folding projects, including oblong books that are bound and trimmed. "The long-grain style of the press helps with fold quality," says Wooldridge. "With in-line folding on press, we're able to fold 12 different ways, as well as perforate, score, paste-bind, apply pattern remoistenable glue, and rotary trim."

"Also," Wooldridge says, "we're very pleased with the extremely high quality that we produce; Komori guarantees that the System 20 will print up to a 300-line screen. And we're able to print at speeds up to 45,000 impressions per hour [iph]."

In April 1999, Magnani Media Inc., a Connecticut-based general commercial printer that had been posting solid growth with its sheetfed capabilities, installed a six-color Mitsubishi Diamond 8 web.

"Competition had become extremely intense throughout the 1990s," says John P. Magnani Jr. "We wanted to continue to grow and advance by investing in the newest high-tech equipment, which led us to the eight-page web. The press has met our very high quality expectations. It's very productive and we've had very little downtime. On the business side, it has increased our sales and brought in new clients."

Magnani uses its Diamond 8 for both short- and long-run web jobs. "Normally, people think of web work as not having the high quality of sheetfed," says Magnani, "but we print very high quality work on the web. In fact, we regularly print difficult jobs on difficult stock, with up to 200-line resolution. The level of difficulty and degree of coverage the web delivers is tremendous. It's not what print buyers usually associate with web printing."

Magnani's Diamond 8, which has a 20" width and 23" cutoff, can print up to 47,000 iph. Features include a computer control console, auto registration control, and a plate scanning system that allows operators to set the inking keys automatically. Operators can accomplish a complete six-color changeover within an hour.

Magnani Media operates three printing plants. The two sites in Enfield, a 75,000-square-foot sheetfed facility and a 33,000-square-foot web operation, are located two miles from each other; about 150 employees staff the two plants.

Housed in the third plant in South Windsor, Conn. is a 24-year-old, short-run printing company that Magnani acquired in 1998. Upon purchasing the company, which was then operating as Suburban Printing, Magnani renamed it MagnaPrint-Suburban LLC. MagnaPrint-Suburban, staffed by about 15 employees and equipped with one- and two-color small-format presses, specializes in high-quality, short-run sheetfed printing.

Magnani installed the Mitsubishi web in the smaller facility in Enfield; later plans call for the purchase of a second web in 2002. "We're not sure if it will be another eight-page, which we have proven to produce a good range of work at high quality, or a 16-page press, which might offer us more versatility," says Magnani. "Granted, there's been a general slowdown in the printing market in the last few months, but our web printing numbers have grown."

Magnani Media was founded as Magnani & McCormick in 1961 by John M. Magnani and Tom McCormick. McCormick retired and sold his share of the business to Magnani in 1983. Since then, John M. Magnani retired and appointed his son John P. Magnani president of the company.

While the privately held firm does not release sales figures, it describes itself as a medium-run printer that has experienced steady sales growth over the past two decades. During the 1980s, Magnani's growth was extremely robust, posting approximately 20% growth annually. Throughout the 1990s, the company remained healthy and grew about 10% each year.

"Last year we grew a little under 10%," says Magnani, "and this year we're slightly behind projections because of the slow first quarter. This follows the economic trends that started last June. But we're seeing a turnaround in our general commercial, advertising, and catalog work and we're very busy now."

At present, four manufacturers offer eight-page web presses for general commercial work.

Heidelberg Web Systems offers its eight-page Printstream press as the 20"-wide, long-grain Model 100 or the 20 1/2" short-grain Model 100S. A third Printstream, the 20 1/2" long-grain Model 100L, is designed for 12-page formats.

Heidelberg, which claims that it has had 40% to 50% market share for commercial eight-page or half-web presses in North America in recent years, estimates that there are around 5,500 half-web presses installed worldwide. "This is predominately an older installed base," says Greg Norris, manager of marketing communications, "and many of the presses have been upgraded and retrofitted as much as possible given the inherent limitations of the older technology."

Norris adds, "There's an opportunity for printers operating these older half-web presses to make significant improvements in print quality, waste reduction, and turnaround time by replacing them with new models. The most important new advantages include digital prepress gateways, advanced inking systems, press contol and automation features, and compatibility with closed-loop color and register controls."

The overwhelming number of half-web presses Heidelberg has installed in recent years have been traditional eight-page long-grain models. Heidelberg offers the short-grain and 12-page models as options for printers whose product mix could most efficiently be served by these configurations, and has sold a handful of these presses. Deciding between a long-grain and a short-grain press is an issue of product mix, not print quality, the manufacturer says.

Almost all of the half-web presses Heidelberg has sold in the past five years have been configured without folders; instead, they have been equipped with in-line finishing systems for direct-mail applications.

Komori America offers the 20"-wide System 20, which has a grain-long format that's compatible with its 40" sheetfeds. Its 23" cutoff accommodates two 11" signatures with bleed trim and color bar.

Komori says it typically equips the web with an automated changover combination folder, sheeter, and many automation features, including individual ink and water tracking curves per color and CIP4 interface to preset the ink keys.

MAN Roland offers the Octoman web in a short-grain version with a 17 3/4" web width and a rated running speed of 50,000 iph.

Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses offers the Diamond 8 web with a 23" cutoff in a long-grain format. The press is available in either a 20" or 26 1/2" web width and is rated to run at speeds up to 1,500 feet per minute, or 47,000 iph. The Diamond 8 features a variable-speed driven roller and variable speed controlled by an AC servo motor.