PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 -- Looking Forward to a Big Fall

Challenging jobs lend themselves to long perfectors, Kodama asserts, because of the speed, efficiency and market flexibility that comes with single-pass production. Maintaining the same gripper throughout improves front-to-back registration and saves paper, he adds.

K.G. Katayama, president, used part of his time at MediaDays to provide an update on two products Mitsubishi is developing for the web offset market, even though they won't be ready for PRINT 05. The combination of the Diamond 16 Max-V variable cutoff (21.5˝ to 24.6˝) web press and Reusable Plate System (RPS) was introduced at DRUPA 04. Katayama says the press is slated for beta testing at a Japanese printer by the end of 2005, but RPS may require a "few more years" of development beyond that of the variable cutoff press.