George Rice & Sons — Coating to Compete

Turnaround times are collapsing. Customers demand the hottest new printing techniques. Technology changes daily. Electronic information, files and disks come at you from every direction. And, amid the whirlwind, you need to maintain the quality standards that differentiate your company. What's a printer to do?

George Rice & Sons, a Quebecor World company, tackles the challenges by utilizing the latest technology. "To compete in this industry today and tomorrow," confides Randy Ginsberg, president of George Rice & Sons, "you must have the latest technology and you must also have the people who understand it."

George Rice & Sons was started in 1879 by George Hiram Rice. Today, the company operates five web presses and five eight-color sheetfed presses, and it consumes approximately 88,000,000 pounds of paper per year. A high-end commercial printer, it does multiple color, multiple-pass work like annual reports, movie posters, automotive brochures and cruise-line brochures for a demanding and sophisticated clientele.

The company attributes its longevity to understanding and embracing technology along with having craftspeople and managers who produce, oversee and maintain consistent quality—year after year.

One key component has been to embrace new technology. By adopting a LithoCoat system from Harris & Bruno, for example, the company has been able to deliver the coating techniques that its high-end customers want—UV, mattes and spot coats—while eliminating common problems like uneven coatings, orange peel and striations. The new technology has given the company increased functionality and better coating quality, while allowing it to do work-and-turn much more quickly, improving productivity.

George Rice & Sons had been looking for a way to provide higher quality coating options to customers. "There's a growing demand from customers for aqueous coatings," says Bob Zimmon, vice president of manufacturing. "They like the visual effects, the increased durability and the tactile results." So when the competition suddenly started producing UV coatings that were "crisp, sharp and smooth," according to Zimmon, "We had no choice but to match it."

The company quickly discovered that the competition had the LithoCoat system from Harris & Bruno. With three systems now installed, the printer is delivering coating quality it has never had before. "The LithoCoat system enables us to give the customer more of what they're asking for," Zimmon adds.

An Unexpected Hero
While offset presses have become extremely automated and sophisticated, coaters have been slower to change. It's common to have a fully automated, touchscreen press with an archaic coater attached to it. Coaters have traditionally been inconsistent, unrepeatable and messy. However, using a chamber anilox system, Harris & Bruno developed a coating system that brings high technology to the coating arena. The benefit to the customer is a fully automated system that delivers repeatable and consistent coating quality.

With a standard, three-roll coating system, the first transfer is all the user gets. But with the anilox chambered doctor blade system, the coating is more immediate and is always delivered with the same consistency, eliminating the variables that cause problems.

According to Zimmon, the quality improvements with the new system have been substantial: better consistency with coatings; no more problems with streaking and striation with water-based matte and dull coatings; resolution of issues with uneven coatings, orange-peel and lack of control with sheetfed spot UV coatings. The printer is now able to produce matte and dull coatings for customers, whereas before it would only do varnish and some satin finishes. It is also able to offer water-based spot coating, instead of being able to do only a flood or nothing. In addition, it has freed up the unit that was dedicated to varnish, so it can offer eight colors—a plus to its clients and designers who seek more options.

"Our clients want the latest technology available in the printing process, including metallic inks, overall and spot aqueous, UV interdeck drying and UV coating running on eight-color presses. It is not uncommon for us to be running five different eight-color sheetfed presses with five different jobs, each requiring a different coating," he says.

Productivity is also up. The new coating capabilities allow George Rice & Sons to do work-and-turn much more quickly. Linked with productivity is efficiency. Part of the new system's success lies in its ease of use. The automated, touchscreen system simplifies operation. Before, operators had to do a lot of checking and frequent changing of the settings. "Any time you have multiple shifts, multiple machines and multiple operators, you end up with multiple standard operating procedures," Zimmon says. "Believe me, not having multiple people monkeying around with the settings is a big plus."

Harris & Bruno's LithoCoat system has been a win-win for George Rice & Sons, allowing the printer to increase the variety and quality of its coating options along with gaining additional productivity. Zimmon notes, "The bar has been raised in terms of coating quality and it will continue to be raised."