Komori America

By Mark Michelson Editor-in-Chief Growing interest in digital press offerings notwithstanding, the estimated 62,000 attendees at PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 surely didn't go home with the impression that the traditional sheetfed offset market has lost its luster, especially given all of the big iron dominating the show floor during the seven-day-long exhibition last month. Sealing the deal for nine new Komori six-color, 40˝ Lithrone presses at various Consolidated Graphics facilities are, front row from the left: Robert Birmingham, Consolidated Graphics; John Marotta, Komori America; back row: Yoshiharu Komori, Komori Corp.; George Abboud, Consolidated Graphics; Stephan Carter, Komori America; and Satoshi Mochida, Komori

Jetrion will move into a new 35,000-square-foot facility in Ypsilanti, MI, in early 2006. The company also has announced the addition of Pitman Co. as a distributor of its ink-jet systems and inks. Kompac, a division of Day International, is celebrating the successful installation of its 100,000th Kompac automatic dampening system. In other news, the company announced the addition of three new team members: Mike Scaglione as director of sales worldwide; Charles Gray as director of supply chain management; and Carmen Costa as marketing manager. Böwe Bell + Howell has launched its Website, www.bbhsupplies.com, offering an expanded product line and supported by a 24-hour

IRVINE, CA—A 10-color Komori Lithrone S40P sheetfed perfector operating at Precision Offset, based here, served as the star attraction during a recent open house sponsored by Komori America. Printers came from as far as Florida, Texas and Maine to attend the event. Before touring the 26,000-square-foot printing plant, Komori America President and COO Stephan Carter welcomed the attendees, followed by a detailed overview on Komori perfector technology by Doug Schardt, product manager. Schardt highlighted the key components in a perfector press design, including the turning mechanism, impressions cylinders, delivery sheet control, transition to slowdowns and the slowdown mechanism. Unique to the Komori design, according to Schardt,

by chris bauer Managing Editor The demand for technology that allows web printers to efficiently produce shorter, versioned runs continues to increase. Print becomes a more attractive option for media buyers when they can combine the impact of highly targeted pieces with the advantages of the web offset process, including faster turnaround times and lower costs. As a result, web press manufacturers are designing machines able to satisfy the ever-changing needs of web printers. "The playing field for web offset is expanding," assesses Greg Norris, manager of marketing communications for Goss International. "Innovations in areas like automation, waste reduction and makeready speed are pushing

Despite all of the changes afoot at Applied Printing Technologies (APT), there is something very familiar about this full-service, general commercial printer. For example, APT President and CEO Carl Grossman has been on the job a little less than two years, yet is a very familiar figure in the printing industry. Jack Egan, executive vice president, has been with the company for roughly one year, but was recently with a very large, well-known national printer. Even Joe Rondone, vice president of sales and marketing, has been on board less than a year. Want familiarity? The Moon-achie, NJ-based printer is owned by Morton Zuckerman,

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,

Printing Research Inc. (PRI) and its owner, Howard DeMoore, announced the successful conclusion of a patent infringement suit against a European company. The suit, filed in Germany against Green & Snob Grafik, showed that Green & Snob's product was a direct infringement against PRI's Super Blue 2 StripeNet anti-marking, anti-static nets. John Laabs has been appointed director of marketing for Fox River Paper. For the past six years, Laabs has worked in various sales and marketing capacities for both the Fox River and Gilbert brands of paper. KBA North America has named Steve Korn its new district sales manager to cover the states of Illinois and

SEWICKLEY, PA—Industry research into best practices of sheetfed offset printing with hybrid UV inks and coatings took a major step forward with the donation of a new six-color, 28˝ Komori Lithrone NL28 press for the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) that was dedicated during an open house celebration held here last month. The fourth press donated to GATF by Komori America, the NL28 is equipped with interdeck UV units that, by using special hybrid inks, provide the ability to add a UV coating without changing out rollers and blankets. It also features a redesigned ink fountain, the Komorimatic dampening system and Komori's K-Station

by chris bauer Managing Editor Printers live by the mantra that time is money. As more steps can be cut out of the prepress, printing and binding processes, more profit can be achieved. Large-format (40˝ and larger) perfecting presses ensure faster printing results by printing both sides of the sheet in one pass through the press. Many printers have put two and two together, and like the sum that sheetfed perfectors provide. "The drive towards large-format perfectors is stimulated in a large degree by the need for process time reduction," explains Doug Schardt, product manager, Komori America. "In other words, why do in two

by chris bauer Managing Editor It's no longer necessary to buy a behemoth press to get all of the big automated features that come along with them. Small- and medium-format (up to 23x29˝) sheetfed presses also boast a bevy of bells and whistles. "The main features required by today's press buyer (are based on) automation," notes Mike Dighton, vice president of Hamada of America. "Auto plate loading, blanket washers, color consoles, including CIP3/4, are almost always asked for by our customers. The automation carries into prepress, as well." Hamada's new Impulse 452P is a 14x20˝ perfector. The Impulse runs at 13,000 iph and will