Stephenson Garners First U.S. HiPrint Installation

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Stephenson Printing, a web, sheetfed and digital printing specialist based here, will soon take shipment of a new Roland 700 HiPrint high speed sheetfed press, the first U.S. installation of the manroland machine. Stephenson produces a variety of multipage products including publications, catalogs, annual reports, direct mail, booklets, brochures, inserts, newsletters, calendars and flyers.

“While the high printing speed is nice to have, we really bought the Roland 700 HiPrint HS press because it has all the latest integrated technologies that support fast makereadies," noted George Stephenson, president of Stephenson Printing, of the HighPrint's rated speed of 18,000 sph. "This will allow us to print 500 or 15,000 copies or less of the multipage work that we specialize in, and still be cost-effective.

“This technology will also let me push much more work through my sheetfed department with the same labor I currently have in less time and startup waste. I anticipate doubling my workflow with the same bodies,” he added.

While the high print throughput of the 41" Roland 700 HiPrint HS is ideally suited for long-run package and commercial printing, its makeready technologies allow printers to pursue much shorter runs that have not been cost-effective on this class of equipment in the past. Depending on workflow factors and press configuration, printers can reportedly expect up to a 33 percent or more increase in productivity.

With the deal announced during Graph Expo, the press had been running in manroland's Print Technology Center in Westmont, IL. It was scheduled to be shipped following the show.