The challenge was to see how many printing plates a Roland 700 press could process during 24 hours on a customer's job that required 1,000 copies of a 2,800-page catalogue.
MAN Roland believes that the new record will make printers look at plate changing in a different light forever.
Based in Stuttgart, Rosler Druck took on the challenge with the company's six-colour Roalnd 700 B1 press which included the latest press technology in the shape of MAN Roland's new Directdrive system to help them achieve it.
In conjunction with MAN Roland's Quickchange software and automatic plate change system (APL), Directdrive operates directly driven plate cylinders in all printing units.
Including plate change, wash-up of blanket and impression cylinders, plus inking units and ink feed, MAN Roland says the system reduces make-ready time by up to 60 per cent.
On the day of the event, independent adjudicator Helmut Hahn gave the countdown and the press operators began their marathon attempt.
During the continuous 24-hour run, there were 103 complete plate changes using 412 plates, which equated to the production of 1,000 printed sheets and a full plate change every 14 minutes during the whole period.
Afterwards MAN spokesman Gary Doman said the record attempt had proven the full potential of Directdrive.
“We're constantly talking to printers and their biggest need is to cut costs and waste, so we're committed to developing technology, like Directdrive, that will help all printers.”
MAN Roland said it first developed direct drive systems in its commercial and newspaper web offset presses.
The vision was to produce a similar system for its sheetfed presses and the company added that it involved considerable investment and new thinking.
The system involves the direct operation of each plate cylinder, which is declutched and driven by a high torque motor mounted on the cylinder journal which results in a reduction in make-ready times as plates in all printing units can now be changed while other job change-over processes take place.
