Small- & Medium-Format Sheetfeds — Armed To Compete

The sheetfed offset printing market continues to feel pressure—be it from rival markets or outside forces such as pricing battles and shrinking run lengths. As more economical digital print runs extend, and affordable web press runs shorten, manufacturers involved in the small- and medium-format (29˝ and smaller) sheetfed space are equipping their wares with the capabilities needed to compete—and win.

“The competition from the web market is becoming more noticeable, but when it comes to the short-run color market, web presses have a number of things going against them,” contends Michael Iburg, product manager, KBA North America. “On a sheetfed press, makeready time is much shorter, waste in terms of paper, ink and other consumables is much less, and the manpower required to run a sheetfed press is less. And, last but not least, there is still a remarkable difference in the quality achieved with a sheetfed press compared to the quality on a web press.”

The keyless Gravuflow inking system can be found on the KBA Genius 52 UV. This is a fully dedicated UV press, and can print on plastics, static cling, lenticular, vinyl and a variety of other substrates. The 14 x 20˝ format press can print on substrates ranging all the way up to 32-pt. Also available is the 29˝, six-up KBA Performa 74 press and the four-color, 29˝ KARAT 74 DI press.

On the flip side, Hamada of America’s Mike Dighton feels that digital printing still has a way to go to seriously compete with the quality of sheetfed offset printing. The company’s B452 press operates in the 500 to 30,000 impression marketplace.

“As far as digital goes, they are too slow and cost too much to produce quality runs of any length,” Dighton remarks. “Customers want color, and the only way to run real quality is on a conventional offset press.”

He then poses an interesting rhetorical question. “We put digitally rendered plates on 90 percent of the presses sold. Does that make us a digital solution also?”

The answer to Dighton’s query may be yes, but not in the traditional printing industry definition of a digital press.

“Small-format shops are beginning to demand the connectivity and efficiency of Computer-integrated Manufacturing (CIM) from their presses,” points out Yves Rogivue, CEO of MAN Roland. “That’s why MAN Roland offers the printnet automation and networking system for the Roland 500 press. It allows printers to streamline their workflow—and minimize time for makereadies—to take costs out of the printing process.”

According to Rogivue, it’s simply a matter of using the right tool for the right job.

“Digital printing has market potential in Variable Data Printing (VDP), but now sheetfed offset presses can compete on runs as short as 250 sheets,” he advises. “We have seen this work for printers that use CIM and automation, enabling minimal changeover times between jobs—no need for the expense and lower quality of digital printing.”

MAN Roland’s 29˝, six-up Roland 500 is a full-featured model that can run 18,000 sph or 15,000 double-sided sph. It can handle a wide variety of substrates, from label stock to plastics to corrugated. The printnet solution provides printers with the ability to preset print jobs with JDF or CIP data from the office.

But the most notable trend affecting small-format presses continues to be the need for completely automated equipment and features, says Don Bence, vice president, Sakurai USA.

“Short runs with slimmer margins and tight turn times are the norm,” Bence states. “The only way printers are able to be profitable in this environment is to have time- and labor-saving features on their equipment.”

Many printers who operate both digital and offset presses have purchased new, automated offset presses after owning a digital press, he continues.

“Everything has its niche—digital makes sense in variable data, extremely short run (under 500 sheets), and large page count, collated products,” he remarks. “For the day-to-day printing job that is short-run and cost-competitive, the offset process will be the mainstay for a long time into the future. It all has to do with cost of production and profitability to the printer.”

Sakurai USA markets the four-color 458 SI/SIP press with coater, which offers a maximum sheet size of 18 1⁄8 x22 3⁄4˝. It features the SIS Control System with POD display and touchscreen control operator interface.

Doug Schardt, product manager, Komori America, advises printers to remember that “automation” not only implies mechanical automation—and faster machine speeds—but also software automation.

“This takes the form of having the press do the lion’s share of the makeready, like removing the ink profile from the rollers of a previous job before applying the new profile for the next job,” he notes. “It also takes the sophisticated step of choosing all of the settings that were traditionally chosen by the operator on the console, thereby eliminating time, improving the quality and making all shifts equal.”

Komori America provides the Lithrone 28P perfector to the small-format market, with a maximum sheet size of 20 1⁄2 x28 3⁄8˝ and maximum printing speed of 15,000 sph.

Another desired feature, according to Schardt, is the ability of the press to automatically track its performance so the machine can be better managed and bottlenecks can be located and resolved.

Thanks to automation and other technologies including add-ons like in-line coating and diecutting, Joerg Daehnhardt, Heidelberg’s product director, small format, says he is seeing a “revival” in the small-format marketplace.

“Things are looking up for printers that can cope with the requirements of today’s market,” Daehnhardt contends. “Printers are looking for the visual on how to get to the next step—by trying to diversify so they cannot be replaced by another vendor or technology.”

Heidelberg’s product in the 20˝ press segment includes the five-color Speedmaster SM 52+LD. Equipped with UV interdeck and end-of-press dryers, the SM 52+LD can print, coat and diecut materials in a single pass. The optional chamber doctor blade coating unit on the SM 52 makes it possible to process pigmented coatings, such as metallic coatings or opaque white.

Faced with pricing pressures, shrinking run lengths and ever-tighter delivery deadlines, printers are rightly concerned with maintaining an optimal balance of pressroom capacity to meet their current and future needs, confides Ken Kodama, Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses’ (MLP U.S.A.) vice president of sheetfed sales.

“Labor costs, overhead and capital expenditures necessary to maintain an effective balance figure prominently in equipment decisions,” Kodama says. “The small-format sheetfed press market remains—and will remain—a dynamic one, and for good reason. Small shops are looking to grow business and continue to move up to multicolor work on larger equipment. With the speed and automation available on 28˝ and 29˝ presses, they can progress to the four- or six-page format.”

MLP U.S.A.’s 20 x 28˝ Diamond 1000LS sheetfed press has a stock range of 0.0016˝ to 0.024˝. It can be configured with up to 10 printing units. The maximum rated speed is 15,000 sph. The 23 1⁄2 x29˝ Diamond 2000LS sheetfed press has a stock range of 0.0016˝ to 0.024˝ and can also be configured with up to 10 printing units. Its maximum rated speed is 16,000 sph.

Another shift in the market, observed by Brian Wolfenden, director of marketing communications for ABDick, a Presstek company, is single- and two-color work moving to four-color for applications such as sales collateral, high-impact marketing jobs, business staples, brochures and newsletters.

Making Strong Messages

“This is especially true when printing applications need to carry a strong message or serve a critical purpose for the client that cannot be met by one- or two-color printing,” he assesses “We have also seen a shift to four-color printing from the opposite direction—market pressures are pushing complex and more intricate five- and six-color work to four-color process due to economic reasons.”

The ABDick 9995 Series consists of two-color offset presses equipped with an array of features. They are available in four configurations: 9995, 9995A, 9995-ICS and 9995A-ICS.

Print buyers are challenged to manage projects with specific objectives and, in most cases, cost is a factor. Four-color process can be a more cost-effective solution.

“Sheetfed printing provides a lower production cost on certain runs,” lauds Walter Gierlach, president of WinAmerica and Pro-Graphics Network, which offers the four-color Win-504 press available with ink console, quick-change plate devices and a dampening system with chiller recirculator for easy makeready. “There is still a strong market for small- to mid-size printers who are printing longer run jobs on small-format presses.”

This is not something that is likely to change any time soon, adds Tim Kirby, national sales manager for xpedx Printing Technologies. “We will continue to see makeready times come down, increases in print quality and we’ll see more advances in on-press imaging,” Kirby contends. “Printers can count on continuing to get high-quality work out of their small-format presses.”

xpedx Printing Technologies distributes the Ryobi 750 series half-size sheetfed presses with four- to 10-color models available. Options include semi-automatic plate changing, automatic blanket cleaning, and automatic cylinder and ink roller cleaning.

Another option, from Akiyama International, is the Jprint series of perfecting presses available in several formats, including 26˝ and 29˝ sizes and up to 12 colors (six-over-six). Maximum printing speed for the Jprint is 13,000 sph.