manroland continued to be the marketshare leader in large format presses in 2008 with many busy and satisfied customers throughout North America.  The company continues to sustain growth in a critical market area despite the economy by addressing printers’ needs and business opportunities.  Sales and installations continue to add up as printers and print buyers realize the value and options that manroland’s large format press offers through its technical advancements.

As David Smith, one of the principals at TI Group in Toronto, explains, “It helps us get jobs done faster and better.  That’s what clients really care about.”

With a wide sheet format up to 73-inches, printers can take on a host of new jobs often handled by smaller presses.  The ability to print 11,000 sheets per hour gives the ROLAND 900 series unmatched speed, quality and unprecedented production efficiency.  Speed was a key issue for Wynalda Litho, a former all-Heidelberg shop.  About 80 percent of the Belmont, MI printer’s work is for the Entertainment industry, and a good portion of their printing is on PET and PVC, plus SBS (Solid Bleached Sulfate paperboard), foil board and other substrates.

“The biggest thing for us is to get more work done and do it fast, because the studios don’t give us a lot of extra time,” said plant manager Steve Shattuck.  “Compared to our previous 40-inch presses, the 56-inch ROLAND 900 with UV coater turns out a lot more in less time.  When we went for ‘bigger-better-faster-stronger’ with manroland, we also got ‘easier to use,’ with automated plate loading and other computer-assisted setups.  Everyone in our pressroom liked that.”

Wynalda now owns six manroland presses and all are networked with the printnet system, which provides outstanding benefits including faster make-readies.

“Our guys like printnet and the ColorPilot control system because we can input information directly into the press and that dramatically reduces make-ready time.  Besides this software, ColorPilot saves time by giving us visual representation of color information that we can now control and automatically correct,” Shattuck said.

The impressive array of automated features was a key selling point for printers like the Lacy brothers at Litho Press in Indianapolis.  These dynamic attributes not only help promote new work capability to existing customers, but also are working to    attract new clients as well.

“Since adding our large format capability with the ROLAND 900XXL, we are doing more packaging, POP displays, corrugated and plastics work,” said John Lacy, co-owner of Litho Press in Indianapolis. 

Lacy explained what the automated blanket impression cylinder adjustment does for them.  “We can switch from paper to board in almost no time and coat with aqueous or in-line UV.  Most importantly, we can price more competitively; for example, 36-inch x 50-inch configurations, because we can run them two-up.”

Mike Heier at Allied Litho is having the same kind of success in Kansas City. “We’ve taken on new work with POP displays and packaging, and we can double-up and run two, 36-inch x 50-inch configurations on the 900XXL.  That makes us very cost competitive,” said Heier, who owns and manages the company with his cousin, Tim Heier.

“Many of our customers asked for larger sheet work.  I like the advantage of being the only printer in the area capable of printing a 73-inch label.”

Allied Litho not only takes advantage of manroland’s printnet workflow integration for faster makereadies, but also uses manroland’s TelePresence, the 24/7 remote   diagnostics service support system.  Heier says the decision is paying off with      increased uptime and quality. 

To learn more about how a manroland large format press can help you bust the    recession, call manroland today at (630) 920-2000 or visit www.manroland.us.com.