New Press Models, Innovative Booth Highlighted by manroland #Ipex

BIRMINGHAM, UK—05/18/10—At Ipex 2010, manroland is thinking and acting unconventionally on its 740 square meter booth area. In hall 17, as a member of PrintCity, comprehensive process competence can be re-experienced.

manroland’s show planners have created a lot of space for communication, consultancy, and exchange of experiences. “We have chosen this new approach without printing presses deliberately. The industry is in a process of change and so are our customers’ expectations. The customer is demanding holistic solutions from the manufacturer. It is high time to show manroland’s process competence clearly and distinctively at trade shows, too,“ describes Thomas Hauser, Vice President Marketing at manroland, the philosophy.

The company is also making a number of product announcements at the show.

Faster, better, more efficient: the new Roland 700

manroland presents the new Roland 700 HiPrint HiSpeed, designed for a starting production rate of 18,000 sheets per hour. In addition, customers can choose the ROLAND 700 HiPrint, a highly productive universal press that is being again modernized.

Shifting into turbo mode
The Roland 700 HiPrint HiSpeed is based on Roland 700 DirectDrive technology, which is designed for a starting production rate of 18,000 sheets per hour. Users of DirectDrive technology differentiate themselves in their markets when it comes to print quality and production efficiency. Special features enable these advantages: a high-performance inking unit with controllable ink flow based on print length, a third or fourth washing line for trouble-free UV and hybrid printing, and QuickChange Surface, which permits quick cleaning of ink fountains.

The Roland 700 HiPrint HiSpeed has all new technologies, functions and options of the Roland 700 DirectDrive, including numerous QuickChange modules and the new InlineColorPilot color measurement and control system. The press is especially suited for long print runs in packaging printing and for high-volume commercial printing. Depending on the print run structure and press equipment, printers can expect increases in productivity up to 25 percent. The first presses are already printing at high speed on a daily basis, to the great satisfaction of customers.

Updated with numerous enhancements
The updated 2010 version of the Roland 700 HiPrint has experienced numerous changes and enhancements. The new feeder has been optimized to accept different substrates and light-weight papers. InlineColorPilot, the new color measurement and control system, has been integrated. In addition, the sheet travel has been enhanced.

New ROLAND 200 High Pile with coating module in the delivery

Coating has now become almost standard with 3B format presses, and meanwhile demands for print enhancement with smaller formats are increasing as well. As a result, manroland now offers the Roland 200 (52/74) High Pile as a four-color version with a coating module.

With this new development, manroland has found a clever and extremely practical solution. The Roland InlineCoater smart, winner of the 2009 German Printing Industry Innovation Award, is integrated in the extended delivery module of the four-color Roland 200 High Pile. This makes it unnecessary to switch from printing to coating in the printing unit. The extended delivery can also accommodate the Roland SelectDryer IR/TL-TL-TL which facilitates the drying process. Thicker coating layers can be applied with an anilox roller (for example with a scoop volume of eleven cubic centimeters) to enhance the print product. The coating unit has an easily accessible, closed chambered doctor blade system and can achieve up to 70 gloss points depending on the substrate.

The Roland 200 High Pile with an integrated coating module and extended delivery opens up a wide range of new possibilities for printers, ranging from occasional simple applications of protective, matt or glossy dispersion coatings all the way up to twin effects on a five-color press. In addition, printers can offer their customers perforation, punching or embossing, which can be integrated in the delivery module as alternatives. By setting themselves apart from digital printing and offering a variety of additional value-adding applications, they can look forward to gaining new customers.

autoprint in commercial web offset printing

manroland now offers autoprint models for commercial web offset printing as well. The autoprint series already feature fully-automated job changeover and system start-up, which ensures flexibility, efficient planning and fewer waste sheets. manroland’s vision is fully-automated production with the printer taking on the role of a process monitor.

Numerous autoprint newspaper printing systems are already installed and in daily production. This success encouraged manroland to introduce autoprint models for commercial web offset printing which is characterized by industrial-scale production. Here customers want a low cost per copy for short and long runs, stable quality, production reliability, efficient planning and resource-conserving production. Therefore, autoprint developments focus on a future-safeguarded concept, efficient production planning, extreme run length versatility, simple operation, and environment-compatible production.

The autoprint vision is a fully-automated press that will establish the benchmark for total production efficiency through automatic control of major processes such as job changeover and production. Manual tasks are reduced to a minimum and the press operator’s role changes to that of a process monitor. This vision stands on a realistic foundation. Already today, autoprint contains the technology for completely automatic job changeover of a commercial web printing system and start-up of the new job. The major autoprint features are the AutoJobChange control package, the APL (AutomaticPlateLoading) system for fast job changeover, QuickStart for low-waste inking-up, and Inline control systems for quality assurance.

Control with AutoJobChange
AutoJobChange is a package for controlling many different job changeover functions. This option carries out many press changeover functions automatically and in a standardized manner without any operator intervention. These include for instance blanket washing, plate changing with APL (AutomaticPlateLoading) and pre-inking with QuickStart. The AutoJobChange system provides seamless changeover from one job to the next and makes short runs on high-volume presses even more efficient.

Changeover with APL (AutomaticPlateLoading)
With the APL (AutomaticPlateLoading) system, manroland sets the standards for the LITHOMAN series with web widths up to 2,250 millimeters. APL reliably controls plate loading and tensioning as well as unloading of the used plates, all automatically from the control console with the web in the press. APL reduces the time needed for plate changing to two minutes, is operator independent, and thus reproducible. This speeds up job changeover, and needs only one operator.

Start-up with QuickStart
With QuickStart, manroland’s patented pre-inking system, saleable copies are produced after only a few cylinder revolutions. The pre-inking process takes place automatically while the press accelerates and makes sure that when impression goes on the right amount of ink is at the right place. Saleable copies sooner means low start-up waste – with QuickStart, manroland sets industry standards.

Stable production with Inline control systems
The Inline control systems ensure constant print quality. These include control of cut-off register, color register, and ink density.

CutCon plus ensures stable cut-off register during start-up, blanket washing and reel changing. This ensures product quality and thus lower waste rates. CutCon plus is effective as the press accelerates, and from around 8,000 cylinder revolutions per hour up to maximum production speed only good copies are produced. Also after blanket washing and register mark detection, CutCon plus readjusts the cut-off register quickly and reliably during the acceleration phase. When reels are changed, CutCon plus compensates for web tension variations. The result: CutCon plus reduces complaints concerning register variations to an absolute minimum.

InlineDensity Control measures ink density much faster than conventional systems. The ink flow is optimally controlled and there is always the right amount of ink in the circuit. The modular system constantly measures the full web width – whether it is 16 pages (965 millimeters) or 80 pages (2,250 millimeters) wide. The density of all inks is recorded after only three cylinder revolutions. The average of five measurements is used to establish an accurate mean value. Checking quality with InlineDensity Control helps to verify print quality vis-à-vis customers. InlineRegistration Control ensures exact color register. An electronically controlled CCD camera measures the very small and inconspicuous color marks.