Two Pennsylvania printers are helping drive a modest renaissance for print investment.

A six-tower, two-folder Tensor press has just been sold to an unnamed customer in the state, while another is investing to upgrade production of tens of billions of printed products a year.

At Creps United in Indiana, Pennsylvania, complex automation systems are fully operational on the company’s three Goss Sunday heatset presses. Facilities on the DCOS systems installed by imPressions Worldwide include ink density control, colour register, cutoff, ribbon, fan-out and plate cocking controls, as well as reporting functions.

Established by Howard Creps in 1948 to produce a pamphlet containing local news to advertise his insurance business, Creps has become one of the largest printers of full-colour advertising in the eastern US. With 175 employees, they now print an estimated 100 billion advertising inserts a year.

Plant manager Mike Palmo says the order was placed following a meticulous vetting process including talking with other DCOS users, with the weeks of due diligence yielding dividends with improved operation of the presses. “We are now installed and fully operational and pleased with our new equipment,” he says.

News of the Tensor sale was broken on social media by IW sales vice president Dave Gilmore. The single-width line (pictured below) includes right-angle pasters and automated remote inking.

If the thought prompts interest, Gilmore, who was previously regional sales manager for Heidelberg and then Goss, apparently has another Tensor press available, this time a “one owner” eight-tower T400 line.

On the downside, he has been overseeing the removal of a giant Goss Magnapak line, which was the largest inserter in the world when it was installed in 2004. “It’s heartbreaking to be scrapping the equipment I sold,” he says.