DRUPA, May 29th 2008 – With expanding worldwide success of the Sunday 4000 model and the introduction of the world’s first 96-page press at drupa, Goss International is solidifying its position as the technology leader in the double-circumference web press sector.

Mazzucchelli, which already operates 48- and 64-page Sunday 4000 presses, will install the first 96-page Sunday 5000 system with a web width of 2860 (112 inches) in Italy later this year.

“This investment is about us taking the initiative and defining the market,” explains Pierluigi Guerini, director at Mazzucchelli. “The Sunday 5000 system will break the rules and provide us with immense possibilities.”

Jacques Navarre, vice president of sales for Goss International in Europe, says the success of the Sunday 4000 press and the opportunities created by the wider Sunday 5000 press are linked closely to gapless blanket technology and a continuous stream of supporting innovations. These include Autoplate and Automatic Transfer (AT) options, as well as the Contiweb FD paster, Ecocool dryer and Goss digital workflow tools for automated operation.

“Early adopters of the Sunday 4000 press leveraged gapless technology and supporting innovations to achieve a combination of higher productivity, print quality and efficiency in producing high-pagination catalogs, magazines and directories,” according to Navarre. “Many of these companies are repeat customers, and in recent years Sunday 4000 presses have been installed for an expanding range of book printing, direct mail and specialized applications.”

The Goss Automatic Transfer (AT) technology enables printing units within a Sunday press system to be shifted on or off impression instantly, allowing single-color version changes or full four-color job changes to be completed without stopping the press.

Gapless blankets allow higher quality and higher speeds to be maintained on even wider cylinder configurations. The gapless blankets also reduce the non-print area, allowing shorter cut-offs and considerable paper savings when paired with Goss pinless folders.

Navarre points out that, while double-circumference Sunday presses can produce up to 96-pages per cylinder revolution at 15 meters (3,000 feet) per second, the high-output presses excel in short-run applications. “Features like the automatic plate changing, AT technology, digital presetting and closed-loop controls allow fast makereadies with very low waste,” he explains.

AIW in Australia, Ghiani and Grafiche Mercurio in Italy, IGPM and Pollina in France, Winkowski in Poland, Blitz Print in the Ukraine, Lisgrafica in Portugal and Pushkinskaya in Russia are among the printers that have recently installed Sunday 4000 systems. These include long- and short-grain presses with formats from 32 to 80 pages.

Stark Druck in Germany installed a versatile short-grain Sunday 4000 press with Autoplate and AT technology in 2007 and has since ordered a second press which will be duplexed with the original system.

Navarre points out that Sunday 4000 press installations have also risen in North America where single-circumference web presses and signatures with lower page counts have long been the norm. More double-circumference Sunday presses have been ordered since American Spirit Graphics installed the first Sunday 4000 press in that region. These include eight-unit Automatic Transfer presses at Transcontinental in Canada and Cox Target Media in Florida, where four-color job changes are completed on the fly, without stopping the presses for a makeready. Sunday 4000 presses have also been installed in the U.S. in unique two-unit AT configurations for non-stop single-color book production.

“A true innovator continuously pursues technologies that provide competitive advantages, create new opportunities, and ultimately set the standards in the industry,” explains Navarre. “Our organization has done this with the Sunday 4000 and Sunday 5000 platforms, and so have the printers that have installed these presses.”