The world's first manroland Colorman e:line press has been commissioned at Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag in Kempten, Germany.

The press – delivered in stages since mid last year – has been taking over production since January, starting with a 280,000-copy regional advertising supplement run, and has been celebrated with a visit from Bavarian prime minister Horst Seehofer.

And it is perhaps more significant for its place in the press-maker’s history: The last new press to be announced before manroland AG collapsed into administration; one of the first commissioned under its Possehl owned successor.
The new e:line replaces two 15-year-old presses - delivering similar production schedules - and is part of an 18 million Euroinvestment also including prepress and distribution technology.

“This is definitely a great amount of money”, says managing director Markus Brehm.
“We have to invest to remain technologically ahead. Those who benefit from the improved quality and the quick, flexible production are our advertising customers and readers, as well as our staff.”
Technical manager Wilfried Sutter says accelerated makeready times for the eight regional editions were crucial in everyday operations: “One of the great advantages is the fact that makeready times are reduced to about three minutes per regional issue. This used to take 20 minutes to half an hour on the old press.”
A central element of the new press is fully-automatic, robot-assisted APL plate changing. Plates are placed in transport baskets and transported to the APL robot with a lift to the upper printing couples.
On the outside the new press units are distinguished by synthetic rather than sheet metal cabinetry, with what the maker calls 'creative illumination' to highlight and delineate press functions. Brehm talks about today's presses having to do more than just print: "They must be 'catchy', with an impressive exterior" ... something that has already appealed to a potential print customer.
Anyone who doubts the importance of cabinetry in the modern age of printing needs to look no further than the finishing systems manroland has built for inkjet digital presses under its cooperation with Océ: The ones for new-age book applications are almost fully enclosed, like the machines to which they are connected; the ones for newspapers are not, at least for the moment.

Perhaps Allgäuer’s pushbutton Colorman is also symbolic of that transition.

– Peter Coleman