In his opening address Dr Markus Rall, the executive board member responsible for sheetfed presses, emphasised the necessity for printing companies to offer innovative products in order to survive in an extremely competitive marketplace. He said even in this internet age, the printing industry has a rosy future so long as it responds perfectly to the needs of specific target groups. Printers must offer their customers more than just printing. To make this work, press manufacturers have to provide appropriate production equipment with the shortest makeready times and inline features for adding value to print products in an inexpensive manner. More time printing and less time making ready, higher productivity and thus lower unit costs» is the formula for success. Niche markets also offer the possibility for printers to differentiate themselves. Coating, double coating, UV applications and now cold foil laminating raise the value of print products and open up new opportunities. Value Added Printing is what MAN Roland calls this combination of maximum efficiency and aiming to increase sales through differentiation.
MAN Roland says the Roland 700 HiPrint, the universal medium-format press offers the ideal production instrument for Value Added Printing, whereas the Roland 700 DirectDrive is the makeready time world champion, aimed more at the short-run segment with up to 5000 sheets per job and frequently ten to twelve job changeovers per shift.
Guests at the technology Forum received presentation on the special features of the Roland 700 HiPrint. The name stands for High Quality Printing meaning the highest print and enhancement quality. Configuration possibilities are virtually unlimited, ranging from standard and long presses with up to twelve printing units, and inline configurations such as the Roland 700 Ultima. With the optional maximum speed of 17,000 sheets/h it is one of the fastest presses on the market. A host of QuickChange options reduce makeready times by as much as 40 percent compared with standard presses. Furthermore, optional inline modules permit a wide variety of enhancement applications on substrates from 0.04mm to 1mm thick.
Print demonstrations at the Technology Forum delivered hard evidence: a six-color Roland 700 HiPrint with a coating module and Roland InlineFoiler Prindor printed the cover pages of well-known general-interest and trade magazines. The forms used convinced the visitors about the stunning eye-catching effects of cold foil laminating which come very close to hot-foil stamping and, as opposed to that conventional offline process, can be overprinted inline which provides a wealth of metallic color effects. The flexibility of the press also without applying foil was then shown after changing over in a matter of minutes to a four-color job with Drip-Off coating. The combination of special print varnishes and dispersion coatings provided attractive matt/gloss effects.
Highly efficient production was demonstrated on a ten-color Roland 700 HiPrint with InlineSheeter, printing a 5/5-color job from uncoated reel paper. After a short changeover to sheeted paper, a 4/4-color job illustrated the inline coating capabilities of this long perfector: the fifth printing unit applied print varnish over the four colors printed before the sheets were turned and the InlineCoater smart, a swing-in module at the tenth printing unit, enhanced the reverse side of the sheets with dispersion coating. Production efficiency and value-adding enhancement all in one.
