CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. -- It isn't every business that can go from a 2,000-square-foot garage to a modern, 40,000-square-foot production facility with a staff of 45 in only nine years. Ultimate Paper Box Co. accomplished all this and more. Owner Janak Patel attributes the company's impressive rise from home-based print shop to $8 million package printer to equal parts hard work, customer commitment and continuous investment in the most up-to-date technology. He believes Ultimate Paper Box's investment in a six-color, 40-inch Mitsubishi Diamond 3000LX sheetfed press with aqueous coater represents the sort of strategic direction that will take the company to the next level. "Our existing presses were very effective competitive tools for a long time," Patel said. "But we reached a point where we were doing more 40-inch packaging work. It proved more efficient to add a 40-inch press. We now have the best press configuration for our packaging market." Ultimate Paper Box operates around the clock Monday through Friday. The production schedule is trimmed down to one shift on Saturday and Sunday. Running alongside the Mitsubishi press are three more six-color machines: a 40-inch, a 50-inch and a 56-inch. Inline aqueous and ultraviolet (UV) coaters help shorten turnaround times and add distinctive flourishes that are ideal for packaging used in the cosmetics, consumer electronics and retail food industries. The Diamond 3000LX is specially designed to print on a wide range of substrates. It accommodates 0.002-inch paper stock to 0.040-inch packaging board. Fast changeover capabilities allow press operators to quickly switch from thin paper to heavy board. Skeleton transfer cylinders with air management prevent problems with smearing and marking the freshly printed substrate. "We run paper all the way up to 36-point board," Patel noted. "The Mitsubishi press gives us great flexibility to complete jobs faster without sacrificing quality or efficiency." The press features other timesaving Mitsubishi technology, including Quick Start Inking 1 and Quick Start Inking 2 programs, high-speed impression on/off device, automated plate changers and remote monitoring and adjustment of virtually every press function from the control console. "We are seeing a lot of Mitsubishi presses in the marketplace that are performing very well for other printers," Patel observed. "The Diamond 3000LX offered the most advanced technology for the price, compared to other presses we considered." The new press has enabled Ultimate Paper Box to reduce ink, paper and time costs, while increasing the amount of work that can be accomplished per shift. "We installed the Mitsubishi press to achieve more production, and that is what it has done," Patel said. "The press has only been in operation for a few months, but already we can project revenues in 2006 of about $12 million." Mitsubishi Diamond series sheetfed presses are available in a range of sizes, from the 28-inch Diamond 1000 series to the 56-inch Diamond 6000 series, and configurations up to 12 printing units. Fast job makeready, ease of operation and high throughput are hallmarks of the Diamond series. Mitsubishi is at the forefront of the implementation of the Job Definition Format specification, and is working with other vendors toward full integration of Mitsubishi presses into a JDF-enabled workflow.