Since I am located in the chilly Northeast, about a 20 minute ride from Goss International’s Dover NH operation, I recently took advantage of their proximity to visit the plant and to have a lively and informative discussion with Goss International CEO Bob Brown.

As our readers will be aware, Goss completed its acquisition of Heidelberg’s web press and high-volume postpress business in August of 2004 as part of Heidelberg’s divestiture of non-core operations. Several months into the integration process, the Dover plant was humming along, with a number of the company’s impressive Sunday presses in various stages of the manufacturing process. Greg Norris, Goss’ Marketing Communications Manager, started my tour in Goss’ state-of-the-art training center which contains a fully functional, single tower, full-color eight-page Mainstream newspaper press, equipped with Goss’ JDF-compliant workflow system. Norris indicates that installation of a Sunday commercial web press can take up to six weeks. Operator as well as mechanical and electrical maintenance programs are offered at Goss training centers to optimize press operation. He also reports that the Dover training center is made available to paper and ink manufacturers for testing purposes.

Between its Dover and Durham NH plants, Goss manufactures several press types, including several of its Sunday web presses featuring gapless blanket technology, as well as finishing equipment including inserters, saddle stitchers and binders. Norris indicates that Goss is the only web offset supplier that produces both press and post-press components , and is also the only truly global manufacturer of web presses, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia. Because of the number of possible configuration variations, the company’s web presses are generally built to order for the purchaser and are sold into the commercial and newspaper markets.