October 11, 2002 -- McCormick Place, Chicago — LITHOMAN Insert makes its North American trade show debut at the MAN Roland exhibit. A complete printing unit of the web offset press reveals some of its technological advances that help printers better target the insert market. LITHOMAN Insert’s printing units feature inkers with three form rollers, a configuration designed to raise the print quality bar for insert presses. LITHOMAN wins the speed contest as well, clocking in with a 2,500 feet/minute running rate. MAN Roland’s LITHOMAN Insert press utilizes a spray dampener. That virtually eliminates the dust and lint contamination that can result from the less expensive stock typically used for insert work. LITHOMAN’s blanket-to-blanket printing units feature plate and blanket cylinders of the same size, broad bearers, one-piece forged cylinders, and stiff sidewall design. This sturdy construction allows LITHOMAN units to provide optimum print quality even at the highest web speeds. The rigidity of the printing units also promotes stability, helping the press hold color, registration and ink/water balance through the long runs encountered by insert printers. To optimize makeready , LITHOMAN Insert is controlled buy MAN Roland’s PECOM operating and automation system. It can network the press to all aspects of a facility’s operation to create a Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) environment. One example: Ink keys can be preset automatically from prepress data. Also contributing the LITHOMAN Insert’s rapid makereadies is its Power Plate Loading (PPL) system, which provides unmatched speed and simplicity in changing plates. An auto-web-up option that automatically threads the press from its splicer to its folder’s former is also available to speed changeover. Other factors that make the new press well suited to insert work can be found in its construction. Its AC direct drive motors eliminate the need for drive shafts from one printing unit to another, which in turn eliminates registration and web tension problems. MAN Roland engineers developed a new folder that’s available exclusively for the LITHOMAN Insert. The 2:5:5 unit can produce broadsheet, tabloid and quarter folded products from 4 to 96 pages. To speed from job-to-job, the folder’s upper unit features presetting of angle bars, slitter locations, ribbon compensators and former locations. Its lower unit features automated changeover, allowing operators to convert it from straight to collect production with the push of a button. Another plus: automated changeover to quarter fold production. Several new LITHOMAN Inserts have recently began producing at some of America’s premiere insert printers.