Hamada Printing Press

This 2017 Gold Ink Awards entry was entered into the Invitations category by Worth Higgins & Associates in Richmond, Va.

Printing Impressions' Upfront Commercial Printing Industry News for May 2009

YORBA LINDA, CA—Hamada of Japan closed its Hamada of America branch office here March 31, U.S. dealer Mid-State Litho reported on its Website. According to the report, American dealers of Hamada equipment are now networking their parts inventory on a national level for greater accessibility. Parts unavailable in the United States will be ordered and shipped directly from Hamada of Japan.

Hamada of Japan will be closing their North American branch office, Hamada of America, effective March 31st, 2009. Hamada of Japan will be taking over much of the workload handled by the American branch. This bump in the road is likely to present some new challenges for people working to support the product line. With parts now coming directly from Hamada of Japan and manufacturer tech support no longer coming from California, Hamada end users are likely to be concerned by the news.

MIAMI IS a well-known area for models, but not just the ones found on the catwalk or sunbathing by the ocean on South Beach. Commercial printers seeking to become full-service communications providers should focus on Original Impressions. For the past two decades, OI, as it is often referred to, has cultivated a reputation for partnering with its clients and supporting their marketing efforts—while becoming a model example of the commercial printer of the future. Original Impressions, based in Miami, is a full-service, multimedia communications provider founded in 1982 as a minority-owned enterprise by President and CEO Roland Garcia, who first cut his teeth in

THERE MAY have been fewer large sheetfed presses or standalone web press units on the show floor at last month’s Graph Expo and Converting Expo exhibition—especially in comparison to the PRINT show held last year—but don’t infer that this resulted in disappointing sales activity and lead generation for conventional offset press exhibitors. Quite the contrary. Even with less heavy iron dotting the landscape at Chicago’s McCormick Place South Hall, the general consensus among press manufacturers indicated it was the most productive Graph Expo event they’ve experienced since the late ’90s. Visitor traffic was brisk and serious buying activity persisted. Chalk it up to

TO STAND out from the rest of the herd, offset press manufacturers, both web and sheetfed, have ramped up their service offerings. This trend toward extended service plans, preventive maintenance programs and beefed up parts and labor options is allowing press manufacturers to expand what is offered to their customers while also becoming more of a partner with the printer. Here is a look at some service plans that are available, in no particular order. At PRINT 05, Heidelberg unveiled an extended service package to the U.S. market called systemservice 36plus. Heidelberg’s systemservice 36plus service package extends service coverage for a period of 36

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

In the not-so-distant past, it was easy to look at small- and medium-format sheetfed offset presses (29˝ and smaller) as the less-coordinated sibling to large-format units. While small-format machines could print with similar quality, they lacked some of the automated features and bells and whistles of their larger counterparts. Today’s generation of smaller-format presses refuse to be overshadowed—most features offered on large-format presses are now available on smaller machines. “For the past few years, equipment manufacturers of sheetfed presses have been adding the same automation that can be found on their larger 40˝ presses to their mid-size and smaller sheetfed presses,” says Thomas Goecke,

By Mark Michelson Editor-in-Chief Don't chalk up the sprint-speed pace of buying activity reported by many Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2004 exhibitors to the Chicago Marathon that just happened to coincide with the opening day of the show. More likely, credit the desire for printers to make capital expenditures again to signs that the U.S. economy and graphic arts industry are finally rebounding, as well as the fact that Graph Expo provided U.S. printers with the first chance to see state-of-the-art Drupa introductions in action. Perhaps nowhere was this more apparent than within the booths of traditional sheetfed and web offset press