MAN Roland Printers Score at the World Cup

Nuremberg, Germany—July 28,2006—A group of more than 50 MAN Roland-equipped printers from North America helped make World Cup and graphic arts history last month, witnessing live the pivotal match between the U.S. and Ghana here and reviewing several facilities throughout Germany where MAN Roland presses are scoring goals.

“We called this event ‘Print and Play’ to emphasize how our technology provides extraordinary rewards to printers who take advantage of our presses’ unique capabilities,” says Yves Rogivue, who lead the tour as CEO of MAN Roland Inc. “Everyone had a great time cheering on these world-class athletes, then seeing first-hand how MAN Roland helps our customers have championship seasons of their own.”

Traveling to Taufkirchen near Munich, the Print and Play Tour visited Druckerei Kriechbaumer, home of the world’s first ROLAND 500 with MAN Roland’s InlinePerfector. A demonstration of the 10-color, 29” press’s single-pass productivity was followed-up with a run by the company’s 41” ROLAND 712 12-color perfector. Throughout the production, the North American visitors were impressed by the high-end commercial work Kriechbaumer produces for one of Germany’s most prestigious automakers.

A trip to DPV Druck und Papierveredelung in Langweid resulted in a demonstration of that printer’s InlineFoiler PRINDOR, the recent recipient of a 2006 InterTech Award from PIA/GATF. The device, which connects with any recent vintage ROLAND 700, applies metallized foil while the press prints, adding an array of profitable effects to a printer’s capabilities.

Going larger, the expedition stopped in Augsburg, where Himmer Druck operates a complete XXL (extra-extra-large format) book production line, including appropriately sized prepress and postpress systems. At the heart of the effort are two ROLAND 900 XXL 4-color 64” presses, and a ROLAND 900 XXL 8-color 73” press with an inline slitter. The visitors also saw how Himmer’s fleet of ROLAND 700 presses contributes to its quality color bookwork.

In Augsburg, the tour visited Mediengruppe Pressedruck, which produces the newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine on five of the latest COLORMAN XXL web presses. Each of the six-wide systems can produce as many as 90,000 copies per hour.

MAN Roland’s web press production facility in Augsburg also made an impression on the Print and Play Tour participants, who learned some of the precision assembly secrets of the world’s leading manufacturer of web offset presses.

The final day of the excursion was devoted to a Print and Play Golf Tournament, which gave the North American printers a chance to exhibit their own athletic prowess on a German course. “Competitions like golf and World Cup soccer are perfect metaphors for how to succeed in the graphic arts,” Rogivue observes. “You have to be precise, you have to be nimble, and you have to be properly equipped to win.”

About MAN Roland
MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG is the world’s second largest printing systems manufacturer and the world’s market leader in web offset. MAN Roland operates out of Offenbach, Augsburg and Plauen in Germany. It employs 9,000 staff and generates annual sales of $2.14 billion (EUR 1.7 billion), with an export share of 83%. Web and sheetfed offset are its major product lines for publishing, general commercial and packaging printing. MAN Roland is the only printing press manufacturer to be a partner of the WAN (World Association of Newspapers). In North America, MAN Roland Inc. operates a network of five regional sales and service facilities, staffed by over 250 employees.