
Offset Printing - Sheet-Fed

WITH MORE than 1,000 exhibitors expected from more than 40 countries, IPEX 2010 is the British version of Drupa.
While LED lamps are old news on inkjet presses, they are something of a novelty on the sheetfed side.
“LED inks for inkjet [applications] have been available for a couple years now,” says Mike Sajdak, senior R&D chemist for INX (Schaumburg, IL). “They offer less heat generation, a smaller footprint and faster startup times. Offset LED inks are a little newer.”
At Drupa 2008, Ryobi (xpedx) teamed with Toyo Ink to showcase an LED-UV system for a concept demonstration on the 525GX, a 14 × 20-inch press.
The judging of the In-Print 2010 contest recently took place at Redlands Community College. Here's a behind-the-scenes look.
Many of us have heard that adding UV printing to our repertoire would increase our offerings to our customers but have not completely understood exactly why. Do the benefits overcome the added expenses? Is UV the answer for developing our business? With today's economy, should I make this capital investment? The question might actually be; "Can you afford not to make the investment?"
UV technology gives in-plants an opportunity to offer something different in the form of high-quality coatings, special effects, processing of unusual printing stocks and rapid delivery of express orders. UV coatings, for example, have a number of specific advantages, among them: high gloss levels, excellent protective qualities and a pleasant tactile experience. Sheets are dry and ready for finishing as soon as they arrive in the delivery, with no powdering required.
After getting by for the past couple of decades with minimal investment, Ashland University Printing Services has carried out some major equipment upgrades, allowing the shop to bring a significant amount of printing back in-house. About a year and a half ago, the Ashland, Ohio-based university invested in a new four-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 52, along with a Heidelberg Suprasetter computer-to-plate device with Prinect workflow. At the same time, the shop replaced its aging Baum folder with a 20˝ Stahl folder from Heidelberg.
Just before Christmas I took the train up to New York City to visit a few in-plants. I do this from time to time to remind myself what the inside of an in-plant looks like and to learn more about the situations managers are facing. So I planned a rather ambitious itinerary that would take me to four different in-plants, all around the city. One was at a television network, one at a financial services company. Another was in a hospital, and the last at a famous art museum.
When University Printing Services at Texas Tech University made the decision to step beyond two-color production and into high-quality offset printing a few years ago, the Lubbock-based in-plant chose a six-color ROLAND 300 perfector press with aqueous coating, from manroland. As word spread, more work flowed in and the in-plant pushed that press to its limits. Now, nearly six years and 48 million impressions later, Printing Services is preparing to add a second ROLAND 300.
New York was decked out for Christmas when IPG Editor Bob Neubauer went there to visit four in-plants: NBC, Metropolitan Museum of Art, AXA Equitable and the NY Presbyterian Hospital.
Heidelberg has restructured its business, resulting in head of sales Jurgen Rautert leaving the company after nearly two decades. Overall sales responsibility has been handed over to chief executive Bernhard Schreier.