RCP Turns on Heat for First Time

RIPON, WI—The state may be better known for its more frigid temperatures, but Ripon Community Printers (RCP) has added a bit of heat to its corner of Wisconsin. The long-awaited installation of a four-color MAN Roland Rotoman N web press, reportedly the first stacked model in North America, has been completed at Ripon, formerly known for its coldset products. The new machine will allow the printer to churn out heatset printing on coated and calendered stocks.

"With our reputation as one of the top coldset printers in the U.S., adding heatset printing is a natural for us and our customers since we already have the expertise in prepress and postpress," notes Andy Lyke, RCP president. "We anticipate some of our coldset customers will move into heatset printing."

The press can produce signatures ranging between eight and 32 pages. Four printing units, the MegTec dryers and chill stand are situated on a mezzanine directly above the other four units in the stacked configuration. Other elements of the press, which is housed in a 25,000-square-foot addition, include QuadTech closed-loop color, register and ribbon control systems.

Deba Horn-Prochno, quality/resource manager, notes that the first job ran on the press March 30. Among the first jobs was a 20-page insert for an auto parts publication, the balance of which was printed coldset.