3rd generation, Chicago-area commercial print firm rolls through some 125 tons of paper weekly, printing direct mail and books on its four-year-old RMGT sheetfed-offset press.

SOLON, OH - Graphco, provider of the leading 8-up sheetfed offset press in North America, announces that JD Graphic, a third-generation, Chicago based commercial printing company, created a new dynamic when they elected to add a roll sheeter to their 8-UP 8-color RMGT 920 Long Perfector. Installed by Graphco during the early days of the Corona outbreak, the configuration was the first of its kind in North America featuring a roll sheeter from Quantum Design that converts rolls to sheets inline on the press. The four-over-four perfector also is equipped with LED technology for instant curing, SMART RPC for two (2) minute plate changes, along with all the other features of RMGT’s InstaColor Technology.

With four-plus years of history to date, JD Graphic’s team reports doing double the makereadies compared to their earlier vintage sheetfed device that the newer model replaced. Getting up to color faster translates to less paper waste. “We are saving 35% in paper costs,” explains Nick DeBlasio, Vice President, JD Graphic Co. “When spending between $3 million and $4 million annually on paper purchases, that savings is huge – amounting to somewhere between $1 million and $1.4 million per year!”

“We store four million pounds of paper on the floor at any given time,” explains DeBlasio, whose grandfather (James, Sr.) started the company 61 years ago on Chicago’s historic Printer’s Row. In the early 1970s, James, Sr. and Nick’s father Jim moved JD Graphic’s web-offset presses to the northwest Illinois suburb of Elk Grove Village where the business flourished under the “Father & Son” leadership of James Sr. and Jim. Today, JD Graphic is a third-generation family run business, and with the recent arrival of Nick’s daughter Lena and another due in a few months, the future looks bright of a fourth generation of DeBlasios in the printing business. The current team of 49 full-time employees work three full shifts to keep up with all the work that their amazing customer service, high print quality and fantastic pricing brings to the company’s shop floor.

“Last year, we mailed more than 125 million pieces,” DeBlasio reports proudly, adding that they go through approximately 250,000 pounds of paper per week. That high volume represents literally tons of direct-mail printing. But self-mailers and postcards are not all that JD Graphic prints. Thanks to the newer press, the firm’s business has been propelled into competing for more book and booklet printing. “Producing book work is much more efficient now,” DeBlasio notes, “because we can run 16-page signatures that are instantly cured and ready for processing as they roll out of the press.”

Full Size Press with Compact Footprint
As Derek Gordon, Regional Vice President, Sales at Graphco, points out: “Keep in mind that the RMGT 9 Series is a full-size 8-UP printing press that delivers industry standard 16-Page signatures. Then, there’s the long perfector’s ability to print double-sided to consider. Running 13,000 full-color 16-Pagers per hour in only one pass through the press is a big competitive advantage, and our cost per sheet, cost per square inch and cost per signature can’t be touched by any other output device.”

The RMGT 8-UP format press has the industry’s smallest footprint, lowest energy usage, and most ergonomic user interface which all contribute to 9 Series worldwide popularity. The footprint played a key role in the choice of JD Graphics, which operates two production facilities totaling 55,000 square feet. “We have space constraints, and the RMGT footprint, along with the Quantum roll sheeter fits in our pressroom perfectly,” acknowledges DeBlasio, who hinted that another building may be added later this year. Post-press finishing work, including folding, gluing and binding, is performed at a nearby location.

Piling Up 3-5,000,000 4/4 Impressions Per Month with Very Few Service Calls
Despite starting up their press during the Corona outbreak, the RMGT 920PF-8+LED now has nearly 150,000,000 impressions on its counter, and the number of service calls required on the press numbers well under a dozen. “Running around the clock for 5 to 7 days per week has shown us just how tough this press really is, and the Graphco Technical Engineers are the best we’ve ever worked with in our 60 plus years in the business,” continues DeBlasio.

Nick DeBlasio concludes that he and his father could not be more pleased with the RMGT 9 Series performance. “We are producing at about half the cost of our old press, and our [profit] margins have never been better,” he says. “This press has exceeded our expectations by far. All the great things that we heard about it prior to 2020 have been validated.”

“Graphco is proud of our strong relationship with Nick, Jim and the JD Graphic Team,” states Chris Manley, President of Graphco. “Seeing this around-the-clock operation pile up over 35-40,000,000 impressions per year on their press is a joint testament to their excellent organization, and our extremely strong press.”

RMGT’s Roll-to-Sheetfed Offset Long Perfector Gains Traction
“We are also glad to see our second Roll-to-Sheetfed Offset Perfector coming online down at Walton Press in Monroe, Georgia. As more and more commercial printers begin to rethink the wholesale move to inkjet, this cost-effective, space-saving and super-efficient print production platform is being strongly considered as an alternative, or an adjunct, to inkjet because commercial printers don’t have to reconfigure their whole bindery to deal with roll-to-roll output from inkjet. With over 35,000,000, four over four, 16-Pagers per year as a comfortable output volume, one RMGT Long Perfector takes up the volume of many inkjet machines at a much lower CAPEX. We have also heard in the market that the cost of LED ink, and offset supplies, is 4 to 6 times lower than any inkjet. Cost matters in selling printing, and unless a job is true variable the RMGT 9 Series Roll-to-Sheetfed Offset process is the lowest by far, so we are proud to offer this compelling solution,” concludes Manley.

Learn more about Graphco at www.graphco.com, 800-458-2769.