Indianapolis, IN — Jackson Press, the printing division of the marketing communications agency The Jackson Group, has added a third MAN Roland press to its busy pressroom. The new six-color-plus-coater ROLAND 700 is equipped to apply ultraviolet inks and coatings, enabling the company to produce a variety of new applications for its customers and prospects. “The UV capabilities of our newest ROLAND 700 will allow us to print on vinyl, styrene and the whole gamut of plastic substrates,” says Ron Jackson, President and Founder of The Jackson Group. “We're going to apply that capability to produce products that require either durability or to print pieces that need a very high-gloss look to deliver the highest level of appeal to the consumer.” As one of the Midwest's premier integrated marketing communications resources, The Jackson Group handles a wide variety of printing assignments from its roster of over 400 clients, who also rely on the company for creative, fulfillment and mailing services. Jackson Press' newest 41-inch press makes the group even more versatile by enabling it to offer its customers a new range of plastic-based products, ranging from point-of-sales displays to restaurant menus. Exploring the UV Universe After a thorough review of the UV universe, The Jackson Group selected a second ROLAND 700 to facilitate its entry into ultraviolet and plastic printing production. “It's the best press for UV plastic applications because the flight of the sheets through the press is a straighter path than found on other brands, and its AirGlide Delivery preserves the quality of the printed sheet right through to the end of the printing process,” notes Jackson. Printing on plastics is particularly challenging because unlike paper, the polymer substrates do not absorb ink. That can result in smearing and marking problems as the sheets travel from one printing unit to another. Use of UV inks and coatings is the most productive solution because that medium can be cured as it travels through the press. MAN Roland's UV package includes a set of interdeck driers which beam controlled levels of ultraviolet light on the sheet to cure the image on the fly. Plastics' lack of absorbency also makes setting inking levels and color balance more critical because the substrate can't compensate for excess moisture. That's one of the reasons Jackson Printing added MAN Roland's Computer Controlled Inking (CCI) to its new ROLAND 700. In fact, the company used the installation of its newest press to upgrade its oldest ROLAND 700, a 1997 model, with CCI. “The difference is like night and day, since we upgraded to CCI,” Jackson comments. “We're now saving up to 15 minutes on every makeready, day in and day out, on that press.” Beyond Plastics Jackson Printing will also be producing hybrid work on its new ROLAND 700, in addition to running conventional jobs. Jackson notes that having three of the same brand press makes his pressroom more productive and more responsive: “Our new ROLAND 700 gives us additional firepower and complements our other presses perfectly. We can exchange the plates from one to the other to be more responsive to our clients' needs. In addition, there are great economies to it. We don't have to worry about training people on the new press. And we can move people back and forth because if a press operator is familiar with one MAN Roland press, he knows how to run them all.” The new ROLAND 700 is also becoming the star of Jackson Press' plant tour, which is a big crowd pleaser for the company. The Jackson Group has put out a digital welcome mat, providing web-to-print portals for its customers. “We have a large database and the computer capabilities that we have enable us to design and build websites for our customers that let them order printing, mailing, and fulfillment from us, right from their desktops,” Jackson says. The Jackson Group could be seen as a model for the type of multifaceted communications entities that are predicted to be the wave of the future in the graphic arts industry. But Jackson cautions that putting together such a business is not as easy as it looks: “To really do it right, you need to start additional, separate businesses. It's not as simple as putting a person here or there and calling them your fulfillment department or your mailing group. We have actually built a stand alone mailing company and a stand alone fulfillment company. Then we pulled it all into printing, so everything works well together. There, we make sure we're running the most effective prepress, output and bindery systems. We want to give our clients the best of everything. That's why we're a MAN Roland shop.”