inREGISTER
Jul 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Katherine O'Brien
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Editor's Picks features selected highlights from AMERICAN PRINTER's InRegister
Keep it moving
Workflow automation and presetting tools are enabling web printers to deal efficiently with short-run work. Automatic Transfer (AT) is a Goss (Bolingbrook, IL) technology that lets printers change jobs without stopping their presses.
“The ability to print continuously without stopping for job changes is going to be a major catalyst in driving web offset run-length thresholds way down,” says Greg Norris, communications manager. “We are seeing a steady increase in interest in the AT technology for book printing, as well as publication and commercial printing.” See www.gossinternational.com.
Bionic web presses
B&L Machine Design (Effingham, IL) specializes in re-engineering Harris M1000 and M110 web presses. The roomy blanket cylinder on the M-1000 series allows plenty of room for semi-automatic plate changers, blanket washers and so on.
For about 40 to 50 percent less than the cost of a new press, customers' legacy equipment is transformed in a shaftless press via a dual motor synchronous drive, which in turn translates into dramatically improved makeready times and print quality.
Led by Larry Hines, a 28-year veteran of World Color's engineering group, the B&L team strips down a press to its very core. The side frames and cylinder bodies are retained — B&L replaces all wear components with new or remanufactured components.
“The plate and blanket cylinders are fitted with quick lock-ups, manual plate lock-ups or in-house developed semi-automatic plate changers, which allow plates to go on and off with very little intervention,” explains B&L marketing manager Jack Hobby.
Typical B&L SmartPress applications include short-run, 4/4 signatures for larger printers such as Donnelley and Quebecor, but it also targets smaller printers such as Ovid Bell.
Hobby stresses that B&L re-engineers presses rather than rebuilding them. “Rebuilding means restoring the press to the original spec, which might be more than 10 years old. When you re-engineer, you're starting over and building in the technology that allows the printer to be more competitive.” See www.blmachinedesign.com.
The gnat fights back
At the recent Offset and Beyond Conference, John Ovid Bell, CEO of The Ovid Bell Press (Fulton, MO) (OBP), said the company's B&L Smart Press is: “The best of both worlds. We have the cost structure of old equipment, but technology that meets or exceeds that of a new press.”
OBP is a third-generation family business specializing in heavy coverage, tight-registration magazines and journals with print runs ranging from 5,000 to 125,000. “We're the gnat on an elephant's rear,” is how Bell characterizes the small publication printer's challenge in entering the web arena.
OBP got its first web press in 1994, a Hantscho Mark IV two-unit press, followed in 1996 by its first multi-unit press, a five-color Hantscho. In 1997, OBP added two units to its original Hantscho press as well as closed-loop color and automatic registration.
“We started the SmartPress press in 2007,” says Bell. “The Smart Press average makeready is 16 minutes and our run average is 30,700 iph. Our makeready waste is 1,500 cutoffs and our run waste is at three percent.”
Bells credits semi-automatic plate loading with keeping startup waste in check as well as the ability to makeready with the web in place. He adds that the servo-drive units “allow us to ramp up and down more quickly than we could before.”
OBP plans to hang onto its workhorse Hantschos, refurbishing and improving them as necessary, and to add a second Smart Press in 12 to 18 months. Bell expects that as his company gains experience with the new Smart Press, makeready waste will decrease to 1,200 while makeready time will fall to 10 minutes. “We think that's realistic,” he says. “We really expect five minutes.”
See www.ovidbell.com.
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