‘Quantum leap’ in heatset makes print more competitive

Larger format heatset presses will help print compete with other media, manroland webfed sales vice president Peter Kuisle says. “Many people in the industry think that the installation of 80 and 96-page web presses on the market will result in further consolidations among printing companies,” he says. “But observers should make a distinction when considering surplus print capacities. “In a recession, there is a decreased demand for print products, thus increasing the pricing pressure.” He says cost reductions from technology development also allow print products to stay positioned as an attractive and efficient medium of communication." He was speaking as engineers worked on the on the first long-grain 96-page Lithoman S heatset press – at Weiss-Druck in Monschau, Germany – described as the “next quantum leap” in commercial printing in what manroland calls its XXL format. The Lithoman S, with a web width of 2860 mm, will produce 4.32 million pages per hour… levels of productivity which were previously reserved for gravure printing. Manroland says it has installed more than 90 per cent of presses worldwide with web widths of more than two metres. The 2.86 metre web width will set a new benchmark.