1
Unlimited Possibilities
expressis North America Flexible Solutions
Innovative Support
Gearing Up For the Future
■ Vince Lapinski, CEO of manroland Inc
■ Graph Expo 2008, October 26 - 29, Chicago, IL, Booth 1246 Experience the learning experience at manroland’s booth, focused on our PRINTVALUE line of support products and solutions. Learn how to optimize performance, discover new workflow ideas, learn how to increase quality reliability, and how to maximize your potential. Even if you’re not a manroland client, you will discover there’s a lot to learn at the new manroland.
Let me be the first to welcome you to the first edition of our companywide magazine, Expressis North America. Recently, manroland revealed to the world our new name, and our new logo. Not only has the company changed its look, but we’ve also rebranded our company’s values to focus on one thing: You. Our customer.
RELIABLE manroland can be counted on to achieve the highest possible precision, reliability and efficiency with its products and services. The company’s aim in this is always to enable the customers to fully concentrate on their business processes. GROUNDBREAKING As the world market leader in web offset and close runner-up in sheetfed offset, manroland has gained an impressive reputation with its numerous innovations and technically perfected printing solutions. DETERMINED manroland knows the expectations of its stakeholders and their challenges to the company. manroland is resolute and uncomplicated in tackling tasks, and perseveres to attain the best solution for its customers.
■ Every morning before Graph Expo opens, manroland will be hosting demos with breakfast at our showroom in nearby Westmont. We’ll provide you with free transportation from your hotel. We’ll serve you something great to eat. We’ll show you some great opportunities that our large format ROLAND 900 can create for you. And then, we’ll get you back to Graph Expo before its 10 a.m. open. ■ Hear popular WhatTheyThink columnist Dr. Joe Webb tell you what 2009 will bring to the print industry. He’s always controversial. He’s always outspoken. And he’s only going to appear for a live speech at Graph Expo courtesy of manroland. Your free admission and free continental breakfast is just part of the PRINTVALUE® you can expect from the new manroland.
INSPIRATIONAL manroland wants to utilize the technical, economic, and creative potentials of print as a medium to the full extent. The company acts out of full conviction and enthusiasm for progress in the medium of Print We look forward to creating long-lasting relationships through attention, service, and a customer-centered philosophy which puts your needs before anything else. We Hear You.
Vince Lapinski CEO, manroland North America ■
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Tuesday, October 28, 8:30 - 9:45 a.m. Room S105B This publication was printed at manroland’s Print Technology Center in Westmont, Illinois.
Thinking Big with the Roland 900
”manroland has been a leader in large-format presses for three-quarters of a century. It’s over 75 years since we introduced the Roland Ultra in 1933; and each new generation along the way has
gone far beyond simply making bigger machines.” --Vince Lapinski, CEO, manroland Inc North America
Today’s graphic arts industry is more competitive than ever. High costs of consumables and the current demand for highquality at a lower price are affecting the bottom-line of printers across the globe. Printers who demand flexibility, speed, and advanced support features from their presses are experiencing the greatest success. The Roland 900 answers the call. Often, large format presses are designed with one purpose – to print on thicker substrates in high volume. The Roland 900 handles the traditional large format needs effortlessly, but also offers the ability to print on the thinnest of papers with astonishing quality. Mike Heier, Owner and Manager of Allied Litho in Kansas City, Missouri told us why they decided on a 900 XXL. "With the new press we'll be able to change over from paper to board in no time," said Heier. "We'll have the ability to use aqueous and UV coating. Plus, we'll be able to double-up and run two 36" x 50" configurations on the 900, making us very cost competitive." "Of course our biggest deciding factor was the availability of business out there in the marketplace for this larger format," added Heier. "With the 900, we see all kinds of new opportunities opening up for POP displays, packaging and other advertising projects." Schawk Inc. in Los Angeles, uses their Roland 900 XXL for printing everything from large retail displays to innovative bus shelters to Hollywood’s own collection of motion picture billboards. Carl Taylor, Managing Director of Schawk Los Angeles, credits the Roland 900 with providing Schawk with the capability to keep up with the growing segment of outdoor media. “With bus shelters, the work is physically closer to the viewer. That requires the highest
■ The Roland 900 offers unbelievable flexibility, fantastic quality, and a huge line-up of automaed features
print quality. And movie industry campaigns are very time sensitive. The consolidated workflow with the ROLAND 900 XXL reduces manufacturing, which translates to an increase in speedto-market.” The Roland 900 is outfitted with all of the renowned options which manroland offers on their smaller presses. The printnet Press Center provides networking and is the basis for print quality and automated print production, allowing the operator to consolidate the large number of automated makeready functions provided, stores over 5000 jobs, and provides a command-center for simultaneous communication with printing units.
Add manroland’s Inter-Tech Award-winning remote press diagnosis and service support system, TelePresence, and unprecedented automation, and the picture is complete. Advanced printing unit design. More automated features than any other large format press in the industry. JDF process integration with printnet. Unbelievable flexibility and versatility. All the prerequisites are provided for constant and dependable print quality, with increased printing output. The Roland 900 does indeed prove...Bigger IS Better. ■
manroland | expressis North America volume 1 | 3
Custom-Tailored Support
What’s the next best thing to a fully automated manroland newspaper press? It’s a fully automated man-
roland newspaper press that comes bundled with a comprehensive benchmarking and training program
that helps press crews make the most of their press’ high-performance features.
That’s the idea behind manroland’s Print Process Optimization Program. The initiative premiered at
The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, right after they started up their REGIOMAN press. Jason Elliott, who heads the Press Print Process Optimization Program for manroland’s printservices, points to the uniqueness of each customer. “We didn’t just do all the training up front and leave. We wanted to come back to them with advanced instruction as they progressed with the press provide The Advocate with a program that would continue to focus on their operational performance.” Customized Courses The program’s effectiveness is built on manroland’s ability to provide custom solutions for each pressroom operation it encounters. “We develop different courses for every program, depending upon the needs of the customer,” Elliott says. “So our program at The Advocate is going to be different from what we do for some other newspaper facility.”
“We generally want to come in and audit all of their processes and then develop a proposal, based on a timeline that works best for the customer. So some might want a compressed program, say in a two-month timeframe and others, like The Advocate, might want it extended over a few years. The scheduling and the scope of the program are very flexible.” Prepress And The Pressroom The Press Print Process Optimization Program at The Advocate initially focused on getting The Advocate’s REGIOMAN to the optimum level of reproduction, and making sure the paper hit the ground running in terms of print quality. It all began with a prepress audit.
“We went through and evaluated everything that had to do with input, starting with the paper’s photographers and their equipment,” says John Terrano, a printservices instructor and a charter member of the Print Process Optimization team. “We also verified specifications for elements such as photos,” Terrano adds. “We made sure we had proper file sizes and the right resolution for enlargements. In short, we standardized whatever was needed to provide good photo reproduction on the printed page.” “We examined toning and modified the tones
4 | manroland | expressis North America Volume 1
The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, premiere of manroland’s Print Process Optimization
Program
characteristics so they would print to the specifications of the press. Monitors, scanners, proofers,, you name it..”
Next, press samples were developed in the form of several patches of color. The printservices instructors analyzed patch characteristics, and what they found was then used to go back in and calibrate the proofers and soft proofing for toning.
Elliott points to the teamwork involved. “All of this was done in conjunction with the customer’s personnel crew,” he says. “All through the process, we were training them on the procedures we were going through, and we were working with them in a very open manner so they fully understood what the benchmarking entailed. The key was to leave them with handson experience and understanding and the ability to consistently maintain the quality levels until we visit them in six months.” On Demand Training Non-scheduled training is also part of the printservices package. The team at The Advocate were having issues with web tension at one point, so manroland’s optimization trainers were
brought back in, In a matter of four days, they were able to immediately diagnose the situation, train the press operators, and give them the knowledge and the confidence they needed to correct any issues in real time. Elliott says it’s all part of the program: “A lot of what we do involves standardizing their processes so they get consistent results. And we’re doing this with them as an extension of their training. What makes it powerful from our point of view is that it takes us beyond the press into complete workflow analysis.” One of the secondary purposes of the Press Print Process Optimization Program is to expand the areas in which newspapers can take advantage of the manroland’s wide ranging knowledge base. “From a workflow point-ofview,” Elliott says, “you want to optimize things right from the front end. That’s where our prepress expertise comes in, and that’s the only way to make sure you’re going to achieve maximum performance from your press. It’s an example of how manroland can support its customers at all levels of their business.”
Next Steps After the initial training, the fine-tuning process begins with the Print Process Optimization team.
According to John Kulak, a printservices Print Process Engineer for manroland and charter member of the Print Process Optimization team, “Sometimes the customer will have changed a piece of equipment or software in their workflow that we need to address. But basically, we are reducing the learning curve everyone goes through with a new press to a much shorter timeframe. Effectively, we get them up on their feet and put the right standards and controls in place so it’s easier for them to run more efficiently. Our second visit will reinforce those good habits.”
The next phase has a strong focus on optimizing the press itself, Elliott reports. “At The Advocate, this level concentrates on the REGIOMAN’s performance. Each time we go in we have a slightly different focus on what we’re going to improve. It’s a progression of improvement.”
Meanwhile, The Advocate’s readers and advertisers liked what they saw. In only four months, The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana saw a 52 percent increase in color advertising revenue.
More to come “We’ve expanded the program to commercial printers and to existing installations as well,” Elliott says. “If you want to optimize your operational performance, this program should be on your radar.”
The result can be a significant return on investment, according to Elliott. “In this competitive environment, a program like this can really help our customers get their costs down and their quality up. And new customers, like The Advocate, can get up to speed very quickly by taking advantage of this best in class program.”■
ProServ Preventive Maintenance: A total solution to customer care
At manroland, Sheetfed Service
means more than providing a reliable,
quality response to a machine failure. It means supplying a full spectrum of
services, based on the experience
and professionalism of factory trained
technicians, advisers and demonstra-
tors. These services deal with ma-
chine
moves
and
overhauls,
preventive maintenance, technical
support and safety matters, as well as
machine breakdowns.
If, despite all preventive measures a
printing press experiences a failure,
the manroland Service Department
will carry out a digital diagnosis or will offer competent help on site.
Service requirements vary from print-
ing house to printing house. Any of
our services can be combined in a variety of ways to suit different needs.
Call or email us to find out more about
our ProServ Packages, and how preventive maintenance can improve
your bottom line.■
manroland has an innovative concept
for Sheetfed press maintenance that
matches your equipment needs. Un-
planned stoppages can be minimized, and product quality can be secured while your investment is protected.
The basis for our approach to this
concept is pre-planned, regular inspections of your equipment, to achieve continual reports about the
condition of your machine and detect
possible weaknesses before a problem occurs.
manroland currently offers ad-
vanced
training
and
special
courses such as the five-day Power Printers training course, and the
two-day printnet course at our Print
Technology Center in Westmont,
Illinois. Contact us for more infor-
mation on these exciting training opportunities.■
manroland | expressis North America Volume 1 | 5
Encore Performance
Once again, manroland and Transcontinental team up to create a flex-
ible, high-performance and high-volume solution for the Hearst Corpo-
ration’s San Francisco Chronicle. After announcing the TRANSMAG
printing plant in Montreal, another partnered effort was not only forward-thinking but also the next logical step.
“We won’t simply be providing a service to the San Francisco Chronicle, we’ll be a business partner who is…contributing to the development of your brand and of your product.” With those words, Messr. Francois Olivier, President of Printing Products and Services Sector announced Transcontinental’s partnership with the Hearst Corporation in 2006. Transcontinental Inc. launched the San Francisco Chronicle project as the next strategic step in the newspaper segment. Messr. Olivier said, “We make it possible for publishers to focus on their core function, which is to promote their brand…so they can attract new generations of readers and advertisers.” Transcontinental wants to provide newspapers with access to the latest technologies including higher quality color and sophisticated personalization.
Transcontinental is the largest printer in Canada. With a network of 12 plants that print over 200 newspapers including some 20 dailies, it is also the leading independent newspaper printer in Canada. The company started printing La Presse in its Montreal plant in 2003 and versions of The New York Times at its Toronto plant in 2005. The company perfected the model of technology and human resources with “associates” who are given a great deal of autonomy and opportunities for creativity to carry out jobs in each plant.
To print over 400,000 copies per day of the Chronicle, Transcontinental invested over $200 MM (USD) to build a new plant in Fremont, California. Now nearing completion, the goal is for the first Chronicle edition to come off the presses in spring, 2009. The Chronicle requirements included multiple size products, high-quality color, and fast turnaround to allow breaking news and late deadlines.
■ The Golden Gate Bridge, and the city of San Francisco, location of Transcontinental’s strategic print-
ing project, a plant with 3 manroland Colorman XXL presses, printing the San Francisco Chronicle
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manroland was selected to provide 3 customized COLORMAN presses for this project because of its mature technology and its demonstrated ability to handle large projects in the US and international markets. A manroland team of electrical, mechanical and computer engineers was assembled in Germany and onsite in California to support the
project. “I’ve worked with manroland on other projects, but this is the most complex we’ve done. manroland has earned our trust with engineering excellence and professional project management,” said Gary Hughes, Site Leader, NA, Transcontinental. Challenges started on day 1. To keep transportation times and costs down, the plant needed to be near San Francisco. California requires seismic protection for all production facilities. The mounting system for the press was specially designed to handle seismic conditions and the press control system interface provides a rapid shutdown sequence to protect plant equipment and personnel. This is a powerful example of the flexibility of the manroland mechanical and electronic designs.
The three COLORMAN presses combine many innovative features. They will be the widest newspaper presses in the US at 72” wide to handle a full 6 pages across. To meet the printing quality requirements, each press will have both heatset and coldset capability. The unique dryer configuration will allow a smaller press footprint and full access to reelstands for the automated material handling system. The folder configuration was designed using a combination of newspaper and commercial technologies to allow an unprecedented production flexibility between presses and products according to Dr. Norbert Dylla, VP Engineering, Newspaper, manroland.
The presses contain the full complement of manroland advanced makeready features such as wash-up and plate changing. To take full advantage of the multiple configurations of the folder system, a sophisticated webbing up mechanism was required. The design team of Mr. Markus Boetsch, Project Engineer, manroland, used best practices learned from installations around the world to develop this state-of-the art web-up system. “The manroland engineers have really combined innovative features from across the product lines from around the world to help Transcontinental meet the needs of its customers”, said Gary Hughes.
With the San Francisco project well underway, Transcontinental just announced an agreement for additional newspaper markets with The Globe and Mail of Canada. The Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail, Philip Crawley said recently, “Transcontinental’s commitment to …high speed color printing capability will keep us at the leading edge…sophisticated printing capability is vital to our business.” manroland is proud to be a partner in the continuing evolution of the newspaper printing industry with wide format COLORMAN equipment.■
Versatility. Flexibility. Quality.
The EUROMAN, manroland’s newest member of the Web Family, has a lot to offer printers of all sizes. Scoring an industry first, manroland’s newest Web press offering, the EUROMAN, brings the versatility and flexibility of the 4X4 format to commercial printers who want to maximize their profitability and expand their capability.
Producing a 32-page signature from its compact four-across, four-wide footprint, EUROMAN equips commercial shops for both high-volume work and shorter runs, previously unsuited for web press production. Production flexibility and product versatility are EUROMAN’s main advantages. EUROMAN achieves those profitable objectives by automating all its makeready functions and delivering quality that is virtually indistinguishable from typical sheetfed standards.
Hi-Liter Graphics, in Burlington, Wisconsin is the location of the very first EUROMAN installation in North America, having started production on the press in March of this year.
President & CEO Craig Faust described the reasons why Hi-Liter chose the EUROMAN. “The versatility, the flexibility were big with us,” said Faust, “We can produce catalogues, we can produce your collateral material. If you have a weekly publication, or a monthly, we can produce that; from tabloid to digest size.”
EUROMAN is fast; enabling printers to produce more for less, while meeting their clients’ increasingly tight deadlines. It can produce products in collect mode at 35,000 copies per hour. With its quarter folder, it can run up to 50,000 copies per hour. With its optional double quarter folder, speeds up to 70,000 copies per hour can be attained. Couple those high production rates with EUROMAN’s exceptionally fast makereadies, and the result is a profit machine.
In addition, the EUROMAN includes manroland’s superbly engineered webbing-up system, which requires no adhesives, and maximizes press speed during reel changeovers.
Tom Sikora, Hi-Liter’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing explained that his production team has successfully transferred jobs as short as 5,000 copies from older sheetfed presses. “It is cost effective because the quality of heatset from our new EUROMAN is so good and we can fold right off the press.”
Renata Rengel, Marketing Manager of manroland, Brazil said, “One of our customers has three EUROMAN presses, all winning business from sheetfed printers due to fast makeready and high print quality.”
The EUROMAN is the next step in Web press technology. Its amazing adaptability, high volume, and topnotch quality provide today’s printers with the advantages they need to expand to meet their customer’s changing needs.■
■The EUROMAN press at Hi-Liter Graphics
manroland | expressis North Amerca Volume 1 | 7
Q&A: printcom®
ments for corrosion resistance, flash point limitation and aromatics restrictions. This means that, not only is printcom chemistry Q: What exactly is printcom? The safe for the environment, it is optimal for your printcom brand stands for print compress and safe for all print professionals. petence and serves as a seal of quality for Q: How can using printcom products save the manroland range of process-compliant a printer money? When printcom products system components for the printing process. are used in concert with eachother, the comQ: Please explain what kind of standards bination of the right printcom the products chosen for the rollers, with the right printcom printcom family are put blankets, using the right printthrough. All products are faccom chemistry with the right tory tested in Germany. The printcom lubricants, increases R&D staff includes 6 uptime, reduces waste and imchemists, 32 engineers, 25 proves make-ready times. Part mechanical and electrical of the product development technicians. Unique testing process is focused on product equipment is in use for life, wear time and product utisleeves, metal back and conlization. The intent behind the ventional blankets, chemicals, printcom brand is to provide rubber compounds and lubrisuperior products which our cants. customers count on for exQ: Are printcom products tended life. environmentally friendly? ■ Vice President Eric Reed Q: How does printcom personalize its There is an increasing requirement for prodservices for each customer? Each of our ucts that comply with environmental regulacustomers, Sheetfed, Commercial Heatset tions. We have developed washes which and Newspaper, has been assigned a comply with the stringent Southern California printservices / printcom Consultant. This VOC limits. All of our printcom washes and experienced print professional works with you fountain solutions meet the Fogra require-
manroland Inc. 800 East Oak Hill Drive Westmont, IL 60559 USA Phone: 630-920-2000
Bo Vis ot it u h s #1 at 24 6
www.manroland.us.com
to understand your business and your requirements for printing. Their recommendations are targeted toward the optimization of your print process. Q: What kind of support and availability can printcom customers expect? In addition to our Consultants, manroland has a support team around you made up of print trainers, electrical and mechanical engineers and technicians, supply chain, order fulfillment and technical clarification professionals. Many of our products are in stock at our Chicago warehouse and if your requirements are unique and you are ordering regularly, we will stock the product you require. All in-stock products are shipped same day, with a 99+% level of service. We will cover the shipping charge for larger orders. Q: Where can people find printcom products? Do any vendors sell them? printcom products are only available from manroland. The products are of superior quality and competitively priced to provide the desired value. printcom strives to earn your business each and every day; choose printcom as your supplier of choice. Visit our Website at www.manrolanddirect.com for information on how to contact your regional printservices/ printcom Consultant.■
For more information or feedback regarding Expressis North America, please contact Denise Lease at denise.lease@manroland.us.
manroland Canada Inc. 119 Westcreek Drive Vaughan, ON L4L 9N6 Canada Phone: 905-265-6300
Experience the learning experience. Discover PRINTVALUE Every day at the manroland booth during Graph Expo our technicians will be offering free training sessions on a wide variety of topics. The sessions are short, but productive. And best of all, what’s being taught can be applied to most any press. For everyone looking for better performance, PRINTVALUE says, “We hear you.” But more than that, it demonstrates that, working together, WE ARE PRINT.®
www.manroland.us.com 800-700-2344