Heidelberg

BY MARK MICHELSON With its emphasis on attracting graphic arts professionals from both North and Latin America, the 27th annual Graphics of the Americas (GOA) exhibition, held in early February at the Miami Beach Convention Center, bucked current industry trends of weak buying activity and light trade show traffic. All told, 22,101 people attended the event, which featured over 500 exhibitors representing approximately 1,500 different companies and occupying nearly 1,400 booths. The Printing Association of Florida (PAF), the exhibition organizer, points to several key factors to explain the strong showing in light of recent economic turmoil. "As the first major printing, converting and graphic arts show

Custom-built Presses For Package Printer AUSTRIA—At the Alfred Wall package printing plant in Graz, and its sister plant in Oland at Bydgoszzcz, Poland, special versions of KBA Rapida 130 and 105 multi-color sheetfed offset presses with double coaters are now in operation. The plant in Austria received a seven-color Rapida 130 and a six-color Rapida 105; the facility in Poland has installed an identical six-color Rapida 105. All machines also have dryers. Alfred Wall prints cartons and flexible packaging for large export markets stretching mainly in Eastern Europe and the Near East. Sheetfed offset, as well as rotogravure printing and in-line rotary and

CALIFORNIA GARDENA—L.A. Press is up-and-running with a new six-color, 40˝ Mitsubishi Model 3F-13 sheetfed press. IRVINE—Orange County Printing has installed a six-color, 40˝ Komori Lithrone press outfitted with a Tri-Service ColorCommand temperature control/cooling system. VAN NUYS—The installation of the Sentinel ink management system from Accel Graphic Systems is complete at Great Western Litho. The ink management system is now equipped on a Komori Lithrone 640 press purchased at PRINT 01. CONNECTICUT MERIDEN—Three former shareholders of Vision Graphics have joined commercial printer Miller-Johnson Inc. They are Tom Mitchell, Andrew Mitchell and Erik Mitchell. The transaction was initiated on Miller-Johnson's behalf by Rampart Associates LLC.

BY MARK SMITH Trying to be all things to all people is generally recognized as a formula for disaster. However, putting a spin on this strategy has proven successful for Cunningham Graphics International (CGI). The Jersey City, NJ-based organization strives to be a one-stop shop for all the document management and communication needs of a tightly targeted market. Through 18 operations spread across 12 cities and five countries, Cunningham Graphics serves the financial community with an emphasis on producing time-sensitive documents involved with investor communications, reveals Gordon Mays, executive vice president of marketing and sales. The company's client base includes most of Wall

BY MARK SMITH Taking steps out of a process has the potential to increase productivity, reduce process variability and lower production costs. That all sounds great, but these gains naturally must be weighed against the investment required to achieve them. Doing such a cost/benefit analysis for the on-press imaging concept might at first seem to be a rather straightforward calculation. The potential variables in the equation quickly prove otherwise, however. Issues related to integration with existing plant capabilities, markets served, type of press being considered, etc., can tip the balance in favor or against the technology and workflow. What makes sense for

Jeff Hill will be the first to admit he knows very little about the printing industry. After all, the 46-year-old Youngstown, OH, native cut his teeth in the communications field. But Hill is a successful businessman. And despite a limited printing background, he knew that Superior Printing was on the verge of something special when he looked into purchasing the company. "I wanted to stay in this area because I'm from here," explains Hill when describing his February 2000 acquisition of the Warren, OH, business. "I saw this company and the technology it invested in, and it was a great opportunity. "We bought a

DALLAS—Padgett Printing announced it has added new equipment to allow it to address its clients' prepress, printing and mailing needs. Among the new equipment is an eight-color Heidelberg four-over-four perfector press with the latest console technology, a 28x40˝ sheet folder with trimming and perforating capabilities, and ink-jet addressing and tabbing capabilities to handle customer mailing requirements, allowing ink-jet printing at up to 600 dpi with 3˝ heads. According to David Torok, president and CEO, the company has invested more money in new equipment capacity in the last 15 months than at any time in the 99-year history of Padgett Printing. "We're dedicated to

BY ERIK CAGLE When you have the need for speed (press speed, that is) the last thing you want is some clunky drying/curing system that is not able to keep pace. Systems that generate high UV output to cure difficult colors and the heavy laydown of inks and coatings at high press speeds are highly sought, according to Dave McDowell, UV product manager for UVTechnology. Minimizing the temperatures of the web allow for printing on films and thermal-sensitive substrates. "As print quality improves, demand has grown for greater image quality and impact from non-traditional substrates," McDowell states. "In many cases, printers are seeking

PEWAUKEE, WI—Sheetfed printer Quality Color Graphics is continuing its foray into the 40˝ market with the addition of $2.7 million in new equipment. Among the new equipment is a six-color, 40˝ Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102-6 press with aqueous coater. The press easily handles heavier cover and board stock, according to Jeff Letellier, vice president sales and marketing for Quality Color Graphics. Other additions are a Creo platesetter, a Heidelberg SBB cylinder diecutter and SSP in-line slitting and scoring unit for multi-page forms, as well as a six-station Stahl 2840 folder. "Going into the 40˝ market is very exciting for us," Letellier says. "This is just the

"It was either an act of insanity or an act of complete bravery," admits Pat Flynn, vice president of sales for Blanks Color Imaging in Dallas. "But, the first job we ran on our new computer-to-plate system was an absolutely magnificent catalog of Renaissance paintings. We should get the medal of honor, because we did it. It turned out so beautifully." That's the kind of faith that owner Leron Blanks and his production staff had in a newly installed, but virtually untested, CTP system they installed at the beginning of 2001. The system—including a Creo Lotem 800B platesetter, a Kodak Approval XP4 digital proofing