Power Printers Training Sessions to be Offered by manroland

WESTMONT, IL--10/02/08--The Power Printers training program at manroland has attracted much attention in recent years. Pressroom personnel and management throughout North America were impressed by what they learned and have shared that knowledge with others in their organizations. With several classes remaining on the schedule in 2008, more than 2,500 people will have earned Power Printers certification in the last five years.

"In today's world, speed to the market is everything," says Jim Oring, Vice President of Operations for Schawk Inc. in Los Angeles. "The Power Printers program provides a clear overview of important issues from prepress to postpress. It was a pretty impressive program where we learned a lot about their automation capabilities, and we have since sent other people from the company for training."

The training program, which will be a major component at Graph Expo (booth #1246) later this month, was established by manroland to provide knowledge to customers and support the equipment investment made by the printer. Typically a five-day program with 35 hours of classroom and hands-on training, Power Printers gives pressmen the chance to see and learn in a training environment - without deadline pressure - how the press performs. Often the training is done at manroland's Print Technology Center in Westmont near Chicago, but additional training also can be handled on-site at the printer's facility.

Approximately 20 weekly classes will be held in 2008. These include specific press courses, such as the September sessions held for the ROLAND 706LV with foiler and ROLAND 906LV, as well as mechanical/maintenance and electrical programs. With the interest level growing, the quest for knowledge continuing, and the North American debut of the PRINTVALUE program taking place at Graph Expo '08 later this month, manroland may expand the training schedule in 2009.

Customers ring the bell heartily in support

"The technical support manroland offered was incredible. I can't say enough good things about it," said Rich Lawrence, Quality Assurance Manager at Finlay Printing in Bloomfield, Connecticut. A 25-year manroland customer and national marketing solutions provider, Finlay has three vastly different ROLAND 700 presses on the floor. One is a 6-color unit with coater, one is a 10-color perfector, and the other is an 8-color inline foiler with coater.

"Our biggest benefit from the training was that we did not have any hands-on training with the software in the past," Lawrence said. "The people from manroland spent three days up here and once we loaded the software, everything went well with our prepress link. We did more training on it, became more comfortable with everything and the JDF tested well."

The three ROLAND presses are all networked using manroland's printnet control and automatic processes. "A couple of our pressroom foremen took a one-day printnet class and it was well worth it," Lawrence said. "The makeready time off our presses is faster and we have cut waste substantially. If we do have a problem, you simply log in and the support people at manroland can see it via remote. We always can talk with someone."

The training and support left Jack Coppess feeling more comfortable about his new ROLAND 700 press. A pressman for 13 years at EPI Printing in Indianapolis, Coppess oversees a portfolio of comprehensive in-house marketing services and supply chain management solutions for the company, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2009. EPI traded a ROLAND 600 digital press for the 40-inch ROLAND 700, a 6-color unit with coater that joined an existing ROLAND 300 on the floor.

"The ROLAND 700 has one back cylinder per printing unit whereas the ROLAND 600 had two printing units on one back cylinder. We did not have CCI densitometry on the 600, so the training helped take the unknown factor away," Coppess said. "It was very informative, very thorough and covered a lot of ground. There were several times where I had a question and the trainer would stop and walk through it. I was the only one from our shop to attend the training, but the information was so thorough I could pass my knowledge onto others."

The level of training made Steve Moreno comfortable despite the fact that he had never worked with a manroland press until CCS Printing, which serves the Seattle area in Bellevue, Washington, purchased a ROLAND 500.

"I'm an experienced pressman and working with a new press can be overwhelming with all of the technology," said Moreno, the Director of Print Operations at CCS, a top local commercial printer that specializes in fast turnaround. "The manroland trainer knew his stuff and was extremely helpful. It was good to ask specific questions and get detailed answers."

Schawk Inc.'s Oring found the training to be as impressive as the equipment. They use a variety of printservices and printnet solutions in working with the ROLAND 900 large format press, a 73-inch unit that is making a huge difference in their workload capabilities.
"Before the ROLAND 900 we were used to the older, 77-inch Miehle press we have, so you're talking about a 40-year leap in technology," said Oring, whose company handles print production work for the film and clothing industries.

"The typical makeready time with the older machine is between 1 to 1-1/2 hours and the average job with the ROLAND 900 is ready to go in 15 minutes. The new press is more than twice as fast, so by understanding it with the training we received it is making us more productive. When we do have trouble with the press, we use the remote device. It's been fantastic and saves us significant time because (manroland) sees the problem and we can correct it."

To learn more about the Power Printers training program, visit the manroland booth (#1246) during Graph Expo, October 26-29 at McCormick Place in Chicago, or go to www.manroland.us.com/PrintTechnologyCenter/index.asp