SUPPLIER news
Komori Demos LS29 Press at Open House
ROLLING MEADOWS, IL—Komori America held an open house and press demonstration recently to showcase the production capabilities of its new 29˝ Lithrone LS29 sheetfed press, which debuted in April at the IPEX exhibition. Six different forms were run on a six-color model with tower coater to demonstrate its six-minute job changeover capabilities (50 percent faster than the Lithrone 28). The new 16,000 sph, console-driven press comes equipped standard with fully automatic plate changers and blanket washers, and Komori’s KHS pre-inking system, to speed makeready times.
Ryobi Opens Press Manufacturing Center
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN—Ryobi Limited of Japan has more than doubled the size of one of its three printing press manufacturing facilities here. Press production and assembly is now underway at the new, $17.3 million, 215,250-square-foot facility, and full operations are set for October 2006.
xpedx, the exclusive U.S. importer and distributor of Ryobi-branded presses, notes the expansion will result in increased availability of all Ryobi offset presses across the United States.
“This factory expansion is significant for U.S. printers because it brings them quicker access to the kinds of offset presses in high demand today,” says Don Harvey, vice president and general manager of xpedx Printing Technologies.
Harvey feels the growing demand for Ryobi presses stems from increased need for short run, high-quality color by end-user customers. He says these jobs demand faster makereadies, faster turnaround, and benefit from press options of up to 10 colors, UV printing and drying technologies, perfecting and coating capabilities.
Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses has appointed Michael Abbeduto to the position of director of customer service. Abbeduto succeeds Marke Barker, who earlier this year was promoted to vice president of customer service.
Printing job board HireSkills.com, celebrating its sixth year, has launched a sister Website, HireSkills.jobs, targeted at job seekers to provide information on interviewing, the latest news of the graphic arts industry and a simplified way to view sales, prepress, press and postpress jobs. Boolean searching capabilities have also been added to the original site.
Kompac Technologies has purchased the Kompac division of Day International. The transition will be seamless for customers since Kompac Technologies will retain its team members and worldwide presence with its current locations in Fairfield, NJ, and Willich, Germany.
Joseph Truncale, president and CEO of NAPL, has been named an Examiner in the Baldrige National Quality Program by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which manages the Baldrige program with the private sector.
Bobst Group USA announced that Lloyd Kent has rejoined the company as regional sales manager, South Central region, for its folding carton sales group. Joining Bobst as regional sales managers are Dennis Gonzalez, Southern California region, and Bruce Kessler, Western region.
Dominic Quennell has stepped down from his position as vice president of global marketing at Duplo Corp. following five years in the Japan-based role. Ryuji Nagase, who joined the marketing team three years ago, assumes responsibility for most of the marketing functions.
Boise Paper donated 319 tons of paper to the School, Home & Office Products Association (SHOPA) Kids in Need Foundation. The primary thrust behind this donation was to provide print and copy paper to 16 school districts in Mississippi that were hit by Hurricane Katrina. In other company news, Boise’s pulp and paper mill in Wallula, WA, has been certified as meeting ISO 14001 environmental standards.
The supervisory board of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen has named Dirk Kaliebe as a regular member of the management board and CFO of the company. The appointment takes effect October 1.
Eastman Kodak has tapped Kenneth Swanson for the position of director, business development, for its Graphic Communications Group (GCG). The company also named Robert Carmosino vice president of sales, global and strategic accounts.
Enovation Graphic Systems has expanded into the wide-format market. Steve Bennett will lead the new group and serve as its vice president of sales and marketing. Bennett served as Enovation’s vice president of product marketing and communications before taking his current post. Tod Ratcliffe will serve as product marketing manager for the wide-format group’s full line of products. In addition, Rick Stein, Bob Rychel and Chris Taylor have joined the company as wide-format sales specialists.
Carl Ferolie has accepted the position of district sales manager for KBA North America. Ferolie’s territory includes Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and El Paso, TX.
Mary McDannold, Cindy O’Neill and Ellen Golden are new additions to the specification sales team for Mohawk Fine Papers.
xpedx will more than double its presence in Connecticut with construction of a full-service distribution/logistics center and new company offices in Middletown. Occupancy is set for late fall 2006. The 85,000-square-foot facility, located just south of Hartford, will house a larger workforce of sales, customer service and warehouse employees.
MAN Roland newspaper web press users have a new 24/7 source for certified replacement parts and consumables. Called manroland-direct.com, the new service was launched at the MAN Roland Users Group Conference. Also, Filip Buyse, formerly of Creo, has joined the company as vice president of corporate accounts.
Valco Cincinnati has acquired Melton S.L., a manufacturer of compatible hot melt equipment based in Spain.
In recognition of its pollution prevention efforts, the Whiting Mill of Stora Enso received the 2006 Wisconsin Business “Friend of the Environment” Award. In 2005, Whiting Mill initiated two fossil fuel reduction projects designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize sludge land-filling and reduce operating costs.
