Extreme Output from
Large-Format Webs

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Despite the prolonged slump in business, web printers taking a closer look at high-output equipment find both versatility and productivity.
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By Debora Toth
Project Editor

Unique configurations and extensive automation are now allowing "large-format" webs, which used to be synonymous with "limited-product" equipment, to be surprisingly versatile while continuing to be an epitome of extreme productivity, even for print runs that keep getting shorter.

Many of the machines are designed to achieve high output--32, 48, even 64 pages in one revolution--via a single web, which, their manufacturers contend, is a more efficient design that yields higher color consistency than smaller-format presses that produce higher paging by printing and collecting separate webs through four-unit sets arranged in tandem.

And even though this capital market understandably is not very active these days--the price tag of a fully featured multicolor press line with a highly versatile folder group can approach $10 million--the category is hotly contested, with suppliers arguing the merits and shortcomings of small- and large-format equipment.

Popular in Europe
Large-format webs caught on in Europe some 20 years ago. There, magazine publishers prefer to produce the same version for the entire distribution. In the U.S., publishers looking for versioning and demographic options gravitated to the traditional 16-page press and extensive binding lines.

Now, more printers in North America are utilizing the big webs or exploring their use for magazines and catalogs, retail and freestanding inserts, and commercial work.

Defining high-output webs
Five manufacturers--Goss International, Heidelberg Web, KBA, MAN Roland, and Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses--offer presses for commercial and publication work that are larger than the two-pages-around, four-across format of typical 16-page equipment (simultaneous second-side printing of blanket-to-blanket presses yields a total of 16 pages with each cylinder revolution).

The larger equipment covered here may have four or six pages around and four, six, or eight pages across. Typically, builders add extensive automation, both to maximize output rates and enhance output versatility in terms of product format and changeover rates.

Not included in this report are directory presses used for the production of telephone books, special-purpose presses, or newspaper-style presses used to produce commercial work.

Long-time proponent
MAN Roland, which claims to be the largest manufacturer of newspaper and commercial web presses in the world, has long been a proponent of large-format, high-output machines printing a single web. In 1996, it installed its first 48-page Lithoman IV for commercial work at Weber in Switzerland, followed by a 64-page, 80"-wide, grain-long "jumbo" model at Tusch-Druck in Austria in 1999 and a 48-page, 80", grain-short model at Mohndruck in Germany in 2000.

Worldwide, MAN Roland has now installed more than 100 high-output heatset, single-web presses; most print paper from 57" to 80" wide and are equipped with plate cylinders about 45" to 50" in circumference. The equipment is mainly used for catalogs, publications, inserts, and commercial work.

These dimensions make the resulting signature size up to four times larger than that of standard 16-page webs; coupled with speeds that approach 3,000 feet per minute (fpm) and fast makeready and job-changeover automation, the output rate is even higher--achieved, the manufacturer emphasizes, without concessions in run-length or job-format versatility.

Productive, versatile, efficient
"For the high end of the market, our goal is to design high-output presses that are not simply long-run machines, but equipment that is versatile as well as highly efficient," says Peter Kuisle, executive vice president of worldwide sales for MAN Roland in Augsburg, Germany.

Kuisle adds, "Obviously, the trends in printing are toward shorter runs, higher frequencies, unusual formats, and flexible pagination. We believe that large-format presses, properly designed and automated, can fulfill all of these new market trends via single-web, single-pass production better than smaller machines whose output requires off-press finishing and binding."

He says such presses can produce just about everything from high-volume, high-page-count products (consumer magazines) to low-volume, low-page-count work (demographic inserts).

Challenging Kuisle's view are manufacturers that offer only 16-page equipment, eight-unit presses running two webs, and two-around machines designed to add paging by widening the cylinders.

Signature flexibility
"The European market tends to favor larger paging segments," says Mark Levin, senior vice president of sales for Heidelberg Web Systems. "But in the U.S., versioning and targeting publications is more common, making the flexibility of eight-, 12-, 16-, and 24-page signature preferable. Publication and catalog printers here selectively add signatures and stick unique inserts throughout the books."

At the same time, Levin adds, "We're seeing shorter runs and personalization via ink jet as an in-line process right from the web press."

Heidelberg, whose presses dominate the 16-page market, developed a 32-page (four-by-four) M-850 model in 1980 (about 100 installed, mostly in Europe) and a 48-page (four-by-six) M-850L (more than 20 installed). It now offers wide-format Sunday 2000, 3000, and 4000 webs.

Platesetters drive interest
"There definitely is rising interest in big presses among publication printers here in the United States, primarily as a result of computer-to-plate [CTP] technology," says Alwin Stoeckl, sales director for KBA North America's web division. "Wider use of CTP means that jobs are more predictable on press. With traditional two-around presses using plates made from film, operators were always trying to do color corrections on press. With CTP, they don't have to chase color corrections on press."

Stoeckl, conceding that there's a mindset in the U.S. against wide-format equipment, says, "The truth is, a wide-format web is much more economical because it requires half the printing units, half the plates, and half the ink keys to set. This concept will take hold in the U.S. as it has in Europe."

Popular heatset press
Goss International has offered for many years its C700 system for a wide range of general commercial work, books, directories, and inserts. The press, a 32-page quarterfold/16-page tabloid heatset machine available in widths up to 72", has a maximum rated speed of 2,500 fpm, or 86,000 and 92,000 copies per hour depending on cutoff. The many C700 customers in North America include Quebecor World and Treasure Chest.

"Some dedicated single-web, 64-page 'ultra-wide' commercial/publication presses may be sold this year and in 2004 in the U.S.," reports David Stamp, director of marketing for Goss International, "but we think that 'ultra-high' volumes are more likely to be done via long-run rotogravure."

Vote for a two-web approach
Stamp adds, "The very high pagination commercial press market need in America is probably well met by eight-unit, two-web presses like the C700 or its competitors, which we feel can be more flexible than the very high output 64-page, single-web heatset machines that have voracious appetites, so to speak."

Population and language mixes in Europe require different press equipment than the very long print runs seen in the U.S. and Canada, Stamp says, concluding, "The American market will decide the most economic solution to its production needs."

Going wider and wider
The Sunday 3000 from Heidelberg Web is a 24-page press (two pages around and six across, up to 57" wide). "A double-circumference web [four pages around] is still pretty unusual in North America for high-volume catalog and publication printing," says Mark Levin. "We say that the Sunday 3000's rated output of 100,000 impressions per hour [iph], plus its traditional configuration as an eight-unit, two-web system, can make it more productive than 48- or 64-page presses when you calculate pages per hour. Also, users can maintain the versatility of signatures with lower page counts."

Levin adds, "We've installed Sunday 3000i insert presses with web widths up to 66" and are looking at going up to the 70" range with the Sunday 3000 to allow a format of two pages around and eight across."

Heidelberg has sold more than 30 Sunday 4000 models, a gapless four-around press available in 32-, 48-, and 64-page formats, primarily in Europe.

Finally, reports Levin, "High-output newspaper insert work historically has been printed on single-web, two-around presses. Our Sunday 3000i and 2000i insert presses are single-circumference alternatives that match the output without requiring duplicate plating."

This month, the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology is starting up a six-unit, 24-page Sunday 2000 donated by Heidelberg for use in education, training, and research.

Bigger and wider
KBA's web division offers the Compacta 418 (four pages around, four across), the Compacta 618 (four pages around, six across), and the Compacta 818 (four pages around, eight across).

"We sell some of these presses to book printers," says Alwin Stoeckl of KBA, "because all three are capable of producing high-quality books."

KBA has installed three Compacta 618 presses at the Lancaster, Pa. facility of R.R. Donnelley & Sons, where they are used to print Reader's Digest, and a four-unit, three-web Compacta 618 at Quebecor World in Merced, Calif., where it produces Western editions of TV Guide. Says Eric Steinbach, vice president and general manager of the Merced operation, "From start-up, the KBA press has delivered quality improvements and cycle-time reductions."

"Non-printer" that prints
For MAN Roland, a showcase of high-output production--newly enhanced by a big dose of format and run-length versatility--is a company that claims not to be a printer. Rather, says William F. Hogg Jr., Valassis is a powerful sales, marketing, and publishing company of national scope that helps its customers build consumer relationships.

Explains Hogg, who is executive vice president of operations and manufacturing for Valassis, "We focus on the 'call to action' created by our clients' products, which just happen to be printed. We strive to fulfill our mission, 'Connecting people to brands,' via mass-distributed products like weekly co-op freestanding inserts, targeted products like newspaper-delivered product samples or polybag advertising, or one-to-one merchandising, such as direct mail."

To produce those targeted as well as mass-distributed products, which are mostly printed heatset on supercalendered paper, Valassis has been utilizing the high productivity and extensive versatility of two four-unit MAN Roland Lithoman IV web presses at its plant in Durham, N.C.

The first, a 56-page, 57"-wide machine with a 43 1/2" cutoff, began operating in autumn 2001; it was joined early last year by a 64-page, 66"-wide web with the same cutoff. Contiweb FMR 111 splicers feed paper into the presses. The 57" press is equipped with a Dual Dry TNV dryer from MegTec, while the 66" press has a Contiweb Ecotherm 130-1680 dryer; the dryers of both presses have integrated afterburners.

The presses use high-speed combination folders (which rise nearly 28 feet high) for maximum product versatility, from 12- to 64-page signatures, in runs from 10,000 impressions to more than a million.

Gämmerler stackers and Sage Automation robotic palletizers finish the process.

Four-press changeover plan
Adds Blaine G. Gerber, plant vice president, "We've always specialized in high-output print production. Now, in response to new client needs, this major pressroom changeover here will add format and run-length versatility to that mix. We plan to install a second 57" Lithoman IV by mid-2003, with a fourth web to follow in the future."

When fully operational, the four presses--each valued at about $10 million--will nearly double the total output of the four four-around Baker Perkins G16 and G16 CW presses that Valassis Durham began operating in 1983. Those presses were rated at 1,600 fpm but Valassis regularly operated them at up to 2,200 fpm. The G16s are being phased out.

Million-copy days
Several times last summer, Hogg reports, crews produced more than a million copies in a 24-hour period on the 57" press, and the operators regularly run both machines at the maximum rated output of 50,000 iph or about 3,000 fpm on the 57" press, and 45,000 iph or 2,800 fpm on the 66" press.

"We push the output rates because one of our basic operating principles is to deliver press-finished product, without need for a bindery," Hogg explains. "With on-press automation, we can run each machine with three operators, who can replace all eight plates in about five minutes and change over a job and set up the folder in just 600 or 700 impressions. Company-wide, our paper waste is about 4%, just 2% on longer runs."

He notes that Valassis, which bills about $850 million a year, pioneered the use of automated guided vehicles and robotics 20 years ago to move paper to the press and palletize printed product.

Three-model offering
Mitsubishi offers the Diamond 32, Diamond 48, and Diamond 64 presses in North America, mainly for the production of books and catalogs. The two larger-format machines have been in operation for a number of years.

The most recent installation went to the C.J. Krehbiel Company, Cincinnati, which installed a four-unit, single-web Diamond 32 in early 2000.

"The C.J. Krehbiel press is one of the most sophisticated 32-page presses in the market, because it incorporates Mitsubishi's semi-automatic plate changing system, fully automatic folder changeover, CIP3 interface compatibility, a GMI closed-loop color control system, and a Muller Martini press delivery and bindery system," notes George Sanchez, Mitsubishi's web offset marketing manager.

He notes, "Krehbiel operates in a tough market, serving the short- to medium-run segment, where run lengths are as short as 5,000 impressions."