Offset and Beyond — Great Technologies, But Tough Times

Prince maintains that new web technologies should help sustain the offset market during the uncertainty of 2009 and beyond. He advises that printers “keep their eyes on” a new sleeve-web press technology being offered. “These presses have variable cutoffs of 10,000 to 200,000 per unit,” he says. “This is great for applications such as food coupons. With non-variable work, you waste stock with every revolution. But, with the smaller (variable cutoff) sleeves, you cut waste dramatically, so the competitiveness is dramatic.”