Reliability, durability and quality

If you ask experienced printers what they expect of sheetfed offset presses, they would most likely reply: reliability, durability and quality. Why are these three characteristics so important to the printers?

Profit and reputation

Normally a sheetfed offset press is worth more than one million Euros, so for all printers this represents huge investment. Reliable and stable printing production, along with longer life span of the press, is highly valued for printers. This translates into more profits.

Sheetfed offset printing is one of the most widely-used printing technologies. However, difficulty in the control of ink-water balance during the actual printing production makes sheetfed offset the most unstable among all the printing technologies.

Many printers are often worried about not only the consistency of print quality in the long run, but also the defects that can appear on the print products. This is especially true for the high-end print products. Demanding print buyers are known to complain very strongly even if there is only one tiny defect on the print products. Printers thus risk losing their clients’ confidence and trust. Worse, this has a negative impact on the brand name and the reputation of the printers in the market. So, for companies like Ting Hsin International Group, the world’s largest instant noodles manufacturer, reliability, durability and quality are vital. "Millions of noodle boxes are produced from our printing factory every day, it’s our responsibility to ensure the smooth supply and premium quality," a Ting Hsin official said.

Volume of impressions says something about the machine

For Ting Hsin, the reliability, durability and quality of manroland presses are proven. “Since we set up our printing house in 2007, 10 manroland sheetfed offset six-color ROLAND 700 have been running 23 hours daily at three shifts per day with high efficiency and productivity,” one official said.

When talking about their four manroland printing presses, Mr. Marc Schoonebeek, the owner of Boejinga Printing from the Netherlands, is both enthusiastic and proud. “One hundred million impressions say something about the machine,” he said. Boejinga Printing is not the only printer who could produce 100 million impressions with manroland presses. In Spain the print volume of PRINTEOS, using a five-color ROLAND 900, reached 450 million. One customer in Italy hit 364 million with its four-color ROLAND 900 in size 6 B1, while in Germany Cheasapeake Melle reached 246 million with its eight-color ROLAND 900 LTTLV. VPM Rastatt has reached more than 480 miilion on its six-color ROLAND 700 with perfecting and double coater and some more customers in Germany have already reached more than 500 million on their manroland presses.

How is this possible?

Designing and manufacturing technologies are important. And manroland has more than a century of continuous technological improvement and expertise to tap into when coming up with a press. manroland’s design concept combines stability and premium quality for whole lines of presses. This ensures the most reliable and the highest-quality printing production for the printers.

For example, the full 7 o’clock cylinder position of the plate, blanket and impression cylinder, the stable and reliable transfer path design. They allow transfer only after printing is complete and the sheet is outside the printing nip. This eliminates the risk of transfer marks during the entire press service life. Consistent quality can thus be maintained.

In addition, there’s the dual drive system, which uses longitudinal drive shaft as the second drive. It has the advantages of achieving the excellent unit-to-unit register well after 200 million 300 million, or even more impressions. Add to this the gear movement management as the press speeds up or slows down during a run. It does not require electronic or computerized register systems or special register marks. Hence, reliable premium quality is guaranteed.

Mr. Nilo Cottini Filho, president of Brasilgráfica, said: “Think about it, get a premium registration on a millions impressions used press, this is really exciting, right?” Brasilgráfica is one of the largest players in the graphic industry in Latin America and its ROLAND 900 has an impression of 410 millions.

Troubleshooting and quick response to emergency

Since malfunctions sometimes do happen, how do you reduce the impact of production downtime to a minimum? “Put out the fire before it starts,” said Mr. Vincent Tillemans, head of printservices from manroland sheetfed. “ProServ is one of proper ways of doing this. Through the proactive checking of the working conditions of the press, common problems, like wear and tear, can be detected and solved in advance. So the continuous and high-quality printing production could be guaranteed.”

Modern communication technology has also been adapted into the printing press. Take for example, the Telepresense service from manroland. It offers customers easy access to manroland experts whenever they need professional technical support. Troubles can be promptly and efficiently handled. One of the highly productive customers in Austria, Ratt GmbH, benefits from having the ProServ and Telepresense technologies. “The five-color ROLAND 700 running in our plant has so far over 200 million impressions and is about 15 years old,” Mr. Stephan Ratt from Ratt GmbH said. “I would say thanks to the premium proactive checking service from manroland, we could maintain such reliable and high-quality production.”

Obtain new business opportunities with the versatility

Nowadays, to make the printing products more attractive, new processes and applications are being adapted into the printing production. So in addition to “durability”, printers now also demand “versatility” from the press. “The press I would like to own should be like this, it must not only stand the heavy and tough production, but also fulfill the increasing new process requirements from print-buyers,” one printer said.

In answer to the demands from customers, manroland established the modular platform of the presses, which allows for upgrades and installation of future technologies, devices and add-ons. Adaptability and flexibility are thus added to the attractive characteristics of the presses, improving the quality of print products and productivity, and at the same time, extending the life cycle of the press. This concept is called futureproof.

Looking it another way, the concept of futureproof allows customers to start the business with lower investment. And then depending on the different product requirements, the ROLAND press can be upgraded with the various applications. This opens up more business opportunities for customers. The durability of the press is also extended.

The printers who demand reliability, durability and quality from sheetfed offset presses choose manroland to help them stay ahead in the highly competitive printing market. What are you still waiting for?

manroland sheetfed offset presses help printers stay ahead in the highly competitive printing market

About manroland sheetfed

manroland sheetfed GmbH began trading on 10 February 2012, following the acquisition of the sheetfed division of the insolvent manroland AG by British industrialist Tony Langley and Langley Holdings PLC ( www.langleyholdings.com).

manroland sheetfed employs around 1000 people at the HQ in Offenbach, Germany and over 2000 staff worldwide, in over 40 subsidiaries. For more information about manroland sheetfed, visit www.manroland.com.