LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Just two months after a blaze at Gateway Press destroyed a vital piece of printing equipment, the Louisville, Ky.-based commercial printer is back up to speed and better than ever.

No one was injured when the fire broke out at the plant in early March, and the building sustained mostly smoke and water damage. But the flames cost Gateway Press one of its two 40-inch Mitsubishi sheetfed presses. A replacement for the press -- a new Mitsubishi Diamond 3000LS -- went into operation the first week of May.

"Mitsubishi responded very quickly to our needs," said Ed Ryan, vice president of manufacturing. "The process of removing the old machine and installing the new press was handled extremely well."

The Diamond 3000LS is a six-color model with inline tower coater. The Mitsubishi 3F press that was claimed by the fire had the same number of printing units. The other Mitsubishi press at Gateway Press is an eight-color Diamond 3000R convertible perfector installed in 2002.

"The model 3F we replaced was installed in 1993, and it had done a great job for us over the years," Ryan said. "Now this new press is doing a sensational job for us. The quality of printing of Mitsubishi presses is excellent, and the speed is very fast. This is why we wanted to stay with Mitsubishi. A recent job we completed in one eight-hour shift consisted of 94,000 sheets. That was fantastic."

Founded in 1950, Gateway Press has grown from a four-person shop into one of the largest printing companies in Kentucky. With annual sales of $35 million, the combination sheetfed-and-web operation employs 190 people. Its 170,000-square-foot facility is staffed around the clock, five days a week. A varied lineup of printing presses includes one four-unit heatset web press and two eight-unit heatset web presses.

Gateway Press counts the federal government and several state governments among its best clients. The printer's partnership with the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) dates back more than 40 years. The GPO produces key Congressional and security and intelligence documents in-house, and contracts out the majority of other printing and publishing requirements to private sector printers across the country.

Gateway Press has earned numerous accolades and repeat business from the GPO. Evidence of Gateway Press' record of quality, reliability and competitive pricing is the fact that the company holds a Level-One -- the highest -- rating as a GPO printer. Furthermore, Gateway Press consistently ranks among the top GPO printers.

For the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Gateway Press prints highway maps, tax forms and park brochures, as well as invitations to the governor's Kentucky Derby breakfast.

"Although government contracts are a major part of our work, we consider Gateway Press a high-end commercial printer," Ryan stated.

To thrive in the commercial printing arena, Gateway Press delivers an impressive array of magazines, catalogs, books, brochures and other multicolor printed materials. Speed and accuracy keep the production schedule filled, and that is where the Diamond 3000LS is expected to contribute heavily.

Gateway Press opted for the fully automated Mitsubishi SimulChanger plate-changing system, which changes plates at all printing units simultaneously in just over one minute.

"The older press did not have SimulChanger, so there is a noticeable improvement in makeready speed with the new press," Ryan said. "That will make us a lot more competitive on shorter jobs."

Along with SimulChanger, the press incorporates the Mitsubishi ColorLink CIP4 server and X-Rite IntelliTrax auto-scanning system.

"Using the X-Rite scanner and being able to transmit prepress data directly to the press increases productivity," Ryan said. "Quality control is better, and we have some pretty quick job changeovers."