Anniversaries and milestones: Almost 30 years of Sunday history

Beyond Superbowl Sunday and the legendary get-together which spawned the pinless Sunday web technology, Goss International this month marks 20 years since the first commercial press start.

It would however, be churlish not to mention the contributions of two other companies: The occasion on which, between rounds of a 1986 baseball match, management and engineers discussed the Harris Web technology, and Heidelberg’s commitment to bringing to life the idea their company had subsequently acquired.

The start-up at a US commercial printing company brought the first-ever Sunday web press – with its gapless-blanket technology – into commercial production, and has been followed by the installation of more than 2300 printing units.

The original Sunday 3000 nearly doubled output capacity while improving print quality and reducing paper waste, with the gapless blanket the most critical contributor.

Replacing the conventional flat blankets with cylindrical Sunday press blankets that slide over the blanket cylinders from the sides eliminated the gap-related flexural vibration which limits speed, web width and print quality. This allowed the original Sunday 3000 press to print at up to 100,000 impressions per hour instead of the 75,000 impressions per hour that web printers were previously accustomed to.

At the same time, the dynamic stability also allowed single-circumference web widths to be extended from the traditional four magazine pages across the cylinder to six pages and eventually eight pages across the cylinder. Goss Sunday 4000 press models soon provided corresponding speed and width advantages in the double-circumference format.

Reduced vibration meant no ‘streaking’ and better print quality, even at the higher speeds. Gapless blankets also reduced the non-print area, allowing shorter cut-offs and paper savings of up to 6 mm with every cylinder revolution.

As the research and development team addressed the considerable engineering challenges, reactions ranged from cautious optimism to complete doubt, with one competitor dubbing it the ‘Someday’ press. Its success however, established the Sunday 3000 as the leading single-circumference press for catalogue and publication printing. It won a GATF InterTech award in 1994 and wowed audiences at DRUPA the following year. By the end of 1995, 31 gapless Sunday press systems had been installed in six countries.

Since its acquisition of Heidelberg Web, Goss’s contribution has been to add new models for new applications, as well as key technologies to enable or amplify the basic advantages of the gapless concept. These include Autoplate, the Automatic Transfer system – which enables non-stop job changes – pinless folding and DigiRail digital inking, as well as automated controls and high-performance splicers, dryers and auxiliaries.

And the very first press is still in operation in the USA adding, the maker says, durability to the long list of Sunday press advantages.

Highlights include:

- the 1986 meeting of engineers and executives which committed to the technology during the weekend of the American football Superbowl Sunday;

– live trials in December 1990, followed by the breaking of the 15 metres/sec record in March 1991;

– the DRUPA showing in June 1995;

– Sunday 4000 double-circumference models introduced in September 1998, with Sunday 2000 for short and medium-run work the following year;

– the gapless Heidelberg Mainstream press shown at DRUPA in May 2000;

– Intertech award for Automatic Transfer technology in 2005;

– 96-page Sunday 5000 in production at Grafiche Mazzucchelli, Italy, in May 2009;

– first Sunday Vpak packaging press shipped to Precision Press, USA, in 2012.