Spica's full automation ensures a second century of growth for St. Louis printer

Rolling Meadows, IL, - Komori America, headquartered in Rolling Meadows, IL., has installed a 29-inch, four-color Spica offset perfecting press at Skinner & Kennedy, St. Louis, MO. For more than a century, Skinner & Kennedy has printed a variety of calendars and other promotional products that often require fast turnaround for orders that can range from a thousand to 50,000 finished items. Because promotional production involves preprinting the basic applications, and then a second run to print customer-specific information, the Spica's full automation has proven ideal for the company's needs.
 
The Spica replaced two older Komori Sprint presses. Though featuring a compact footprint and a 29" sheet format, the Spica offers all the automation of larger presses, including Komori's legendary quick makeready capabilities to speed frequent changeovers, pre-programmable ink fountain setting, the PQC Print Quality Control system with CIP4 compatibility and automatic wash-up.
 
"Our calendars run in a variety of sizes, from 19 x 26 down to some smaller sizes," said Chuck Pecher, president and owner of Skinner & Kennedy. "On the Spica we have the choice of running one-up, two-up or four-up, which works very well for our needs. The electronics on it are great-the makereadies, the wash-ups, all make it the perfect choice for our environment. We do a lot of one and two-color work and two-over-two. It's a perfecting press, so it fits just about everything we print."

"The Spica's doing more than the work of two presses," Pecher said. "We run 50-lb. offset, and it's rare when it's not running 12,000 sheets an hour. In the past, we were averaging two and a half shifts a day. With the advanced automation of this press we're down to two shifts, and I still have capacity." He noted that to date, the company has printed 20 million impressions on the Spica with little downtime.
 
"Skinner & Kennedy is a third-generation family-owned business that has always been adept at designing new products and investing in technology to keep pace with print production and customer demand," said Jacki Hudmon, senior vice-president of sales and marketing for Komori. "We are very pleased to continue our long-term relationship and support of their business with the addition of the Spica."