Printing without interrupting the press run to replenish the paper supply is commonplace in the web offset world, where synchronized flying pasters present fresh rolls for on-the-fly splicing at the exact moment when the running web is about to exhaust itself.

Sheetfed presses can print on sheets that are continuously cut and fed from rolls, but when the roll runs out, the press must stop while the sheeter accepts a new one from the unwinder—or so believed a printer in Green Bay, Wis., until a pair of equipment manufacturers convinced him otherwise.

With their help, Kevin Heslin, President and CEO of Seaway Printing, has become the first offset printer anywhere to integrate nonstop roll splicing with automatic sheeting and feeding—in this case, on an eight-color Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 perfector. The other components are a Contiweb CB-N 1100 Non-Stop Unwinder and a CutStar reel sheeter, also from Heidelberg.