SUPPLIER news

Group Visits KBA’s German Head­quarters

RADEBEUL, GERMANY—KBA North America invited a select number of U.S. and Canadian printers, as well as industry journalists, to visit its headquarters and sheetfed press manufacturing facility here recently. The group was treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the factory assembly hall; the R&D facility; product demonstrations on the new-generation, 41˝ Rapida 105 five-over-five perfector press and the large-format, 56˝ Rapida 142 four-over-four perfector; and visits to several area printers that are utilizing KBA presses in sophisticated markets. Time was also spent sightseeing in Dresden and Leipzig.

“Our open house in Germany provided printers with an in-depth education on how to decide on one of our popular presses, from a long perfector 41˝ press to a large-format press, or even a large-format perfector, which only KBA can deliver,” says Ralf Sammeck, outgoing president and CEO of KBA North America (he has accepted a new assignment effective this month with KBA in Germany), who accompanied the group. “This was accomplished by showing them makereadies for commercial, packaging and label jobs, including hybrid technology, and comparing costs and throughput on both types of presses.”

First stop for the group was the KBA headquarters Customer Center, where attendees learned about the benefits of KBA 41˝ perfectors and Rapida large-format presses. The trip included a guided tour through the assembly halls, as well as demonstrations at KBA’s R&D facility in Radebeul, outside of Dresden. After demonstrations on KBA’s 41˝ and 56˝ presses, the group saw firsthand the manufacturer’s unique method of individually building presses for each of its customers, then shipping the units, and having the same German press crew rebuild the press at the customer’s site. Participants learned how KBA builds its perfector presses and saw a couple of long perfector presses, including special configurations with coaters on each end, being test-printed and prepared for shipping.

The group also visited Ellerhold Grossplakate, one of the biggest poster printers in Europe, which laid claim to the world’s first Rapida 205 81˝ sheetfed press in January 2004. A production run on the huge press showed how Ellerhold produces posters within 24 hours.

The tour’s next stop was at the high-tech facility of United Print.com, a 100 percent online ordering-based printer whose sales have been doubling each year. Producing 1,000 jobs within a 24-hour period, its 320 employees all wear space-age white suits. United Print.com relies on 14 KBA presses, ranging from a 20˝ model to large-format machines—all linked via KBA’s Logotronic management system.

Packaging Forum a Success

KENNESAW, GA—Heidelberg recently hosted more than 160 of the nation’s top packaging printers, including folding carton producers and commercial printers involved in packaging, at its first annual Packaging Inforum & Open House. The event was hosted in Heidelberg’s recently expanded Print Media Demonstration Center (PMDC).

Among the event highlights, Heidelberg unveiled a new 6,000-square-foot packaging addition to its now 40,000-square-foot PMDC, showed its Diana X 135 folding carton gluer for the first time in the North American market and previewed its very-large-format (VLF) press offerings that will debut at Drupa 2008. The event also included a series of educational sessions and interactive product demonstrations, as well as a behind-the-scenes tour of Heidelberg’s facilities and system- service support call center.

In the evening, visitors attended a dinner, where they heard from keynote speaker John Bernardo, manager of Sustainable Innovations LLC, who discussed the importance of sustainable business operations in today’s packaging environment.

During the dinner, Corey Gustafson, of JohnsByrne, was awarded an endowment from Heidelberg after he won a raffle drawing. The endowment allowed for a $5,000 donation to be made in Gustafson’s name to Ferris State University, the graphic arts school of his choice. In addition to the donation from Heidelberg, JohnsByrne will make an additional donation to the scholarship. The combined donation will go to the Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF).

The event included demonstrations on Heidelberg’s full-size Dymatrix 106 CSB diecutter with stripping and blanking; full-size Varimatrix 105 CS diecutter with stripping; half-size KAMA ProCut 74 diecutter with foil stamping; and entry-level ECO 105 folding carton gluer. It concluded with a series of educational sessions hosted by Heidelberg’s Print Media Academy (PMA). Sessions focused on key topics such as folder automation, short-run perfect binding and ink-jetting in-line with finishing.

In addition to folding carton producers and commercial printers, Heidelberg invited several vendors from diecutting tooling, adhesive application systems and adhesive supplier companies to show their latest offerings. Vendors that participated in the event included: Atlas Die, Carton Craft, WH Leary, HHS America, Capital Adhesives, C&A Corp. and National Starch.

G.F. Puhl has moved into a new 51,000-square-foot office and manufacturing complex in Gallatin, TN, thereby increasing its manufacturing capacity and storage space. The company designs and manufactures trim collection systems.

More than 150 guests at a recent MAN Roland open house got an early look at the new Roland 700 HiPrint sheetfed press running in conjunction with MAN’s InlineFoiler Prindor. The “Hi” stands for high quality in regard to this 41˝ model press, which can be configured with an array of in-line quality control and production capabilities. Held at MAN Roland’s Graphic Center in Westmont, IL, the event also featured expert presentations on a range of topics relating to printer profitability. It was hosted by Vince Lapinski, CEO of MAN Roland, who remarked that, “Printers are being pulled in two directions at once. They need to utilize new applications and differentiate themselves from the competition, while lowering their cost of production. This technology allows them to accomplish both goals at the same time, while expanding their profit margins.”

SMART Papers has opened a new online retail store (www.smartpapers-store.com) to provide quick ordering and delivery of specialty printing papers direct from the manufacturer. The Kromekote paper line and all other of the company’s offset and digital printing papers are now available in any order size.

Rima System has added Mark Legac to its North American team as vice president of sales and marketing. Legac will be based in the company’s Atlanta office.

Peter Wilkens, who had been serving as director of Agfa Graphics’ newspaper segment for North America, will now head the company’s U.S. sales and marketing team as vice president. This new organization includes all prepress solutions across Agfa’s commercial, corporate and newspaper segments. Wilkens joined Agfa in 2005 after holding several senior management positions withing the printing industry.

xpedx has extended its distributor operations to Canada with the opening of a new Canadian headquarters, a 150,000-square-foot distribution center and two new xpedx Paper & Graphics stores serving the Greater Toronto area and surrounding cities. Company officials said they expected to open additional facilities across Canada starting in 2008, including a third store in the metro Toronto area. In other company news, Tom Weisenbach has been named executive vice president for sales and marketing and Guy Belew is now vice president for strategy and planning. Weisenbach was formerly head of the xpedx South Central region in Greensboro, NC. Belew, former vice president of marketing, is also in charge of Lenexa, KS-based xpedx Printing Technologies and the xpedx National Technology Center in the metro Cleveland area. Wayne Duncan has joined xpedx Printing Technologies as Western regional manager.

Chuck Ronnenburg has joined Wausau Paper as a district sales manager. He will be responsible for directing the company’s printing and writing paper sales efforts within the Mid-Atlantic region.

Presstek Inc. announced that Todd Chambers, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, has been appointed to the National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP) board of governors. He is one of the board’s 12 members. In other company news, Wayne Parker has been appointed to the position of director of internal audit. His responsibilities include leading Presstek’s Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts.

Mark Anderson has been appointed vice president of professional services for Technique Group’s North American operations. Along with having more than 20 years of industry experience, Anderson is a Certified JDF Expert and a registered CIP4 speaker.

To support continuing expansion, CC1 Inc. is adding personnel. Chris Nardo has joined the company as Western region sales engineer, bringing with him experience as a press erector. Jatinder Sappal has been named application engineer/project manager responsible for new orders, including interfacing with all CC1 customers and OEMs.

Printable Technologies has appointed David Thompson to the newly created position of executive vice president, sales and marketing. Thompson previously served as president and CEO of Saepio Technologies, where he led the company through a major growth phase.

As a new marketing strategy being phased in over six months, Sappi Fine Paper North America is adopting a “brand family” approach and streamlining its product lineup. The company will no longer use the #1, #2 and #3 paper qualifications, but will “house” each of its brands in one of the four families—Premium, Performance, Buzz and Economy. The Buzz family is being introduced to bring new and seasonal brands to market.

Pace Industries, a plastic extrusion specialist in the graphic arts industry, has been designated as a green power company by Wisconsin Public Power. This honor is awarded to companies that procure a threshold amount of their energy needs by wind, water, organic materials or other renewable sources.

Harold Leete has joined Bobst Group North America as regional sales manager, folding carton equipment, Northeast territory. Leete, who has more than a decade of sales experience, will handle the states of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.

NAK Inc., an interactive marketing and communications agency, is implementing technology from MindFireInc to produce direct response campaigns for clients. This marketing approach adds personalized URL and landing page capabilities to printed direct mail pieces. In addition, Nicholaus Kubis has joined NAK as vice president of sales charged with accelerating the agency’s expansion into new market sectors. Kubis previously worked at idEXEC, an online database of executives at leading public, private, non-profit and government organizations.

Stora Enso recently expanded its sustainability efforts in two ways. The paper maker’s Centura, Productolith (gloss, dull and matte sheets) and Arbor product lines now meet the chain- of-custody certification requirements of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Earlier this year, the company added SFI and PEFC certifications to the existing FSC certification of six of its North American mills. Also, Charles (Charlie) Deutsch has been appointed to the position of director, uncoated mechanical business development. Deutsch joined Stora Enso in 1997.

Fujifilm has unveiled a plan to use methane gas produced by a local community landfill to meet approximately 40 percent of the power requirements of its primary U.S. manufacturing complex, located in Greenwood, SC. Each year, the amount of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions avoided by this initiative will equal the output of more than 17,000 vehicles.

Amy Stark has been named vice president of sales and marketing at The Bennett Group. Stark will develop and oversee all programs related to the Mailing Training Institute, which provides hands-on and classroom training on leading mailing equipment and software.

Prism Corp. has appointed Tim Daisy to the post of sales and marketing executive, North America. He will be based in Wilmington, MA, where Prism USA has its office. Daisy has 20 years of industry experience, including serving as chairman of the Networked Graphic Production (NGP) partnership.

Kevin Joyce has been named to the board of directors of NAPL (National Association for Printing Leadership). Joyce has more than 18 years of industry experience and currently is managing director, United States and Canada region, of Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group.

Best Graphics recently hosted an MBO Folding School seminar at its corporate facility in Milwaukee. Operators from nine area printers received instruction on folding techniques and productivity in a hands-on environment. The class was led by Dave Trutzenbach, a recognized authority on bindery operations.

BCC Software, a BÖWE BELL + HOWELL company, is one of the first companies to be recognized by the U.S. Postal Service as a SuiteLink Certified software distributor. Now incorporated into the company’s Mail Manager 2010 and 2010 LE applications, the SuiteLink process analyzes business address records that are identified during ZIP + 4 encoding as high-rise buildings with missing or incorrect secondary information and, where possible, appends or corrects those records with the appropriate secondary suite information.

While it officially marked 40 years of operation in June, Screen (USA) plans to formally celebrate the anniversary of its founding on September 10 at the Art Institute of Chicago. The event is scheduled to coincide with Graph Expo 2007. Its Japanese parent company, Dainippon Screen, was incorporated in 1943, but was the outgrowth of a manufacturing capability dating back to the mid-1800s.

Having acquired the Reeves printing blanket business last fall, the Trelleborg Group is creating a new printing blanket operating unit that will combine the U.S.-based Reeves Brothers, Reeves SpA in Italy and Reeves New Printing Products in Shanghai, China. Those businesses will adopt the Trelleborg name over time, but the Vulcan brand will be retained.

Tom Saggiomo, president of Agfa Graphics’ operations in North America, has been awarded the Gamma Gold Key by the Gamma Chapter of Gamma Epsilon Tau, the international graphic arts honor society. The award salutes exceptional achievement on behalf of graphic arts industry education and professional development. The Gamma Chapter is chartered at New York City College of Technology, a branch of City University of New York.