Heidelberg

By Mark Smith Mature used to be a polite way of saying old and on the brink of decline, if not already sliding down the hill. By introducing a culture of healthier eating, regular exercise and improved medical care, the baby boom generation has shattered perceptions about aging. Consider that 40ish baseball and football players now are being given multi-year contract extensions. So what should one read into the fact that web offset printing often is referred to as a mature technology and industry? For the technology, it's a testament to the quality, strength and relative stability of the process. Still, it is possible

Caveat printer! Do you know what your competitor, er, colleague down the street is doing to attract new customers and possibly take away some of your market share? Chances are, it's not a calendar adorned with scantily-clad females. That may fly with the good people at Snap-On Tools, but in a business where image—the printed one, that is—is indeed everything, it behooves printers large and small to develop promotional pieces that not only accurately and succinctly inform people of your products and services, but also incorporate a nice sampling of those capabilities.

by chris bauer According to heatset web press manufacturers, an intense war is raging—and they aren't talking about Iraq. The war they speak of is a pricing war—and it is being fought among commercial printers. This economic conflict is necessitating higher productivity and press availability to increase efficiency and, in turn, generate profits. "This calls for higher production speeds with higher circulations and a reduction in makeready times and waste due to a higher degree of automation," says Erik Rehmann of Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA). "Additional paper savings are achieved by reducing the size of the cylinder circumference—with mini-gap technology and the use

German Trainer Comes to Jersey WESTAMPTON, NJ—Dietmar Block, technical advisor from the Wohlenberg paper cutter factory in Germany, recently held a five-day, in-depth training course here at the headquarters of MBO America to help keep the company's technicians up-to-date on the latest paper cutting techniques. Komori America has consolidated the Komori HRB and Komori Midwest sales territories. Mike VanCalbergh, vice president of sales, Midwest region, now manages the new territory, which covers Illinois, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and western Pennsylvania. Dr. Horst Steppat is now responsible for R&D and service at basysPrint in Germany. In his

STERLING, VA—Copy General, a chain of independent print shops in the Washington, DC, area, has purchased a Xerox DocuColor iGen3 digital production press. Management says the intent is to grow the organization's color production business from about 10 percent of total revenue today to 50 percent in 2004. (www.xerox.com/ www.copygeneral.com) ROCHESTER, NY—Presstek Inc. and Xerox Corp. announced the latter will no longer sell the DocuColor 233 DI-4, DocuColor 400 DI-4 and DocuColor 400 DI-5 presses and related consumables, all of which had been sourced through Presstek. Order taking for the products will cease immediately, but Presstek will continue to provide

Paper Signs Deal for New Press PEORIA, IL—The Peoria Journal Star, a Copley Press property, has signed with MAN Roland for a new Geoman press to replace its current Goss letterpress system. The 42-couple, eight-web machine, earmarked to more than double the paper's color capacity, will reside in a new 66,000-square-foot extension that's being added to the company's facility here. california ANAHEIM—KNI Inc., a book manufacturer, has acquired Complete Reproduction Service, a Santa Ana, CA-based book manufacturer. The two companies will operate from the KNI facility here. Additional equipment that will be added include a three-knife trimmer, Wire-O and spiral binding machines,

By Erik Cagle How important is turnaround time in an on-demand, digital printing environment? Moreover, how critical is it to accommodate short-run finishing needs without outsourcing? Just ask Tom O'Brien, president of Greenville, NC-based AccuCopy, a digital printing operation with annual sales in the $10 million range. "We are in a fairly remote area, geographically," O'Brien says. "We couldn't afford the time it would take to send jobs out for finishing, given that they would have to travel several hundred miles to make it to the nearest trade bindery." AccuCopy, which is slated to move into a new 70,000-square-foot facility this spring, utilizes three Xerox DocuTech 6155s

OKLAHOMA CITY—Quad/Graphics has accelerated the timetable for launching its new gravure operations, located here. "We are encouraged by growing client interest in our newest location and confident that the timing is right to pull the trigger on gravure in Oklahoma City," says Tom Quadracci, president and CEO of Quad/Graphics. Two new 108˝ Cerutti gravure presses will be installed and made production-ready in 2004 rather than in 2005, as previously announced. The two gravure presses will complement the two web offset presses that will start up this summer when the company officially opens the facility. Currently, the printer is constructing Phase I to house its initial web offset

By Erik Cagle The last thing Corporate Press wanted was to be dubbed a one-trick pony. Sure, the Landover, MD-based printer has made a name for itself in the commercial realm, but providing cradle-to-grave solutions for customers has been the Number One priority all along. According to Mike Butala, general manager of Corporate Color—one of five divisions that comprise the Corporate Press organization, the printer has avoided "pigeon hole" labels by forging a reputation based on its versatility. "By involving ourselves in our customer problems beyond simply commercial printing, we have provided solutions within our corporation that increase customer satisfaction and loyalty," he says.

Kinko's Buys ImageX DALLAS—Kinko's has acquired ImageX for approximately $16.5 million in cash. ImageX finished the fourth quarter with $12.3 million in cash and total assets of $25.2 million. Kinko's will use ImageX's technology to enhance its DocStore and Kinkos.com offerings. Kinko's does not now offer an online system by which customers can order business cards or stationery. But that will change once the acquisition is completed. Watchtower Adds Web Presses WESTMONT, IL—The Watchtower Society of the Jehovah's Witnesses is set to install seven MAN Roland Lithoman web presses in July, with two going to the U.S. and one each slated for Mexico, Brazil, England, South Africa