Goss Gears Up for Drupa

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY—Just as sheetfed press manufacturers continue to swim upstream with advancements designed to help their customers capture jobs in run lengths once considered best suited for web offset printing, Goss International is paddling downstream by demonstrating an all-new web press concept in Hall 17 at Drupa this month to enable users to compete for high-quality sheetfed work.

The M-600 Folia web press system is engineered with M-600 printing units and new sheeter technology for running speeds of up to 30,000 sph. The new sheeter, developed in partnership with Vits, enables web offset printing on coated paper stocks with standard sheetfed inks, but without a dryer.

Five daily press demonstrations at Drupa will emphasize its high print quality, fast makereadies, low waste and agility at extremely short run lengths. To deliver these capabilities, the M-600 Folia includes a system of integrated and automated features for paper handling, presetting, plate changing and continuous sheet stacking.

Blanket-to-blanket printing with the M-600 units also allows the entire sheet format of up to 27.5x40˝ to be utilized, eliminating the non-print gutters required in the sheetfed perfecting process.

And, without the requirement of a dryer, the length of the new web press is equal to that of an eight-unit sheetfed long perfector. Shown at Drupa in a four-color configuration, additional M-600 units can be added for special colors and varnishes.

Press options include Goss Autoplate automatic plate changing and DigiRail digital inking technologies, closed-loop controls, as well as the Goss Web Center system for automated presetting, waste reduction and workflow management.

Additional printing unit exhibits in Goss’ 18,000-square-foot booth at Drupa will include Magnum 4, Uniliner, FPS (Flexible Printing System) and Sunday 4000 models, all with new features and capabilities. It will also highlight the world’s first 96-page Sunday 5000 web press and demonstrate its latest Magnapak and Pacesetter finishing systems.

The manufacturer will profile installations that are utilizing its Automatic Transfer (AT) Sunday presses for continuous printing. More than a dozen presses with the Autoplate and Automatic Transfer technology combination are now in operation worldwide, including eight-unit presses that complete full-color job changes on-the-fly.

During a pre-Drupa Webinar with industry journalists, Goss International CEO Bob Brown noted successful installations of eight-unit Sunday 4000 presses with Automatic Transfer at the Cox Target Media Valpak manufacturing center in Florida and at a Transcontinental facility now printing four-color books non-stop.

He also reported that, due to building construction delays, the first Goss FPS press purchased in the United States will not come online until this fall. Since first ordering it, The Free Lance-Star newspaper in Fredericksburg, VA, has since opted to add heatset capabilities to the four-tower, 72˝-wide, triple-width press.

Sheetfed printers that added their first Goss web presses (Sunday 2000 models) last year included Boyd Brothers in Florida and Trade Secret Printing in Canada. “We see this as a market opportunity going forward,” according to Brown.

In disclosing the company’s financial results, he reported new order intake worth $1.065 billion in 2007, and a 2008 starting backlog of $655 million in equipment orders. Sales in the Americas region were $466 million last year.

Brown also pointed out that Goss continues to invest 5-6 percent of sales toward R&D activities.