(November 20, 2008) WSD of Nordhorn, Germany, has selected manroland Inc., to be the exclusive North American distributor for its MAG-In product line of on-press finishing blankets and dies.  manroland will offer the magnetic inline cutting system for most of its presses, including large format, and those from other manufacturers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.  MAG-In systems and components are available through manroland's printservices division.

manroland has sold the MAG-In system for many presses over the past several years in both the U.S. and Canada.  It adds functionality to standard offset presses, and is designed for fast changeover and can be adapted for long or short runs.  The system allows a unit of a sheetfed offset press to emboss, perforate, crease and print in Braille. 

The foundation of the system is a magnetic blanket that is a high tech proprietary material, designed for high magnetic adhesion and mounts on the blanket cylinder.  The blanket material is chemically engineered to provide maximum magnetic   holding power in a flexible material and has a printed grid to precisely align the metal finishing strips or "dies".  While running at full press speeds, the dies are held tightly to the blanket.

All MAG-In functions can be combined on a single sheet with custom strips that can be cut to any length.  Standard perforations are available from stock and    custom configurations also are available.  WSD has developed a proprietary edge shape that minimizes the force needed to form the paper.

"We are proud to be selected and look forward to continuing the success of the MAG-In system here in North America," said Kevin Crawley, manroland manager, printservice development and delivery for sheetfed.  "This system would be a great upgrade for any printer with a sheetfed press to add high margin, inline finishing capability."