January 19, 2004 -- “Move your ideas” was Rolf Wankmüller’s appeal to the more than 100 guests who attended the Dambach Open House in Gaggenau near Stuttgart in Germany. The Managing Director of this poster printer is a firm believer in the philosophy of vigorously pursuing new ideas, and with this attitude he also influenced the development of the new sheetfed offset jumbos from MAN Roland. The Open House, jointly organised by Dambach Print + Service GmbH and MAN Roland, took place in mid-December 2003 to mark the official start-up of the new five-colour press in Gaggenau. And in his speech Rolf Wankmüller emphasised that the Dambach company had a big influence on the development of the new MAN Roland ultralarge format presses. He contacted MAN Roland in 1999 to encourage the company to build an ultralarge format 8 (1,300 × 1,850 mm) press because, apart from reducing the number of sections for conventional posters, this format would enable CityLights posters to be printed in one piece and thus improve quality and productivity. MAN Roland agreed to the development and Dambach ordered the ROLAND 900 jumbo. At the time that happened, Dambach was also playing a major role in promoting the concept of four-part, large-format outdoor posters. Only four parts for a billboard that is otherwise pasted with six or more poster sections had a number of advantages but also required new developments – not only in presses but also in finishing and logistics. And so Dambach had correspondingly larger folding and collating machines built as well, along with an EAN code system. The poster kits became smaller and the code prevented wrong sequences in the collating process. All in all, the new system has led to a much higher level of productivity and quality assurance in large-format outdoor advertising, which many representatives of the poster industry confirmed during the Gaggenau Open House. All poster formats on one press For two years now Dambach has been producing large-format posters exclusively in four sections. In order to do this by offset as well as by screen or digital printing, the company installed a used Harris press five years ago. But as Rolf Wankmüller points out: “The most important step was to obtain a modern press that could meet all the challenges of poster printing and with which all poster formats could be optimally produced.” Waste rates cut dramatically Dambach Print + Service describes the new ROLAND 900 format 8 as the world’s most modern press in its size category. And the company considers the most significant features to be automated plate changing, automated substrate settings, smear-free sheet travel, the high-performance inking and damping units, and computerised control. Rolf Wankmüller reports that the number of waste sheets per job has dropped from 500-600 to 150 – very significant in view of the fact that the average run length lies between 1500 and 2000 sheets. Apart from conventional and CityLights posters, Dambach intends to use the press to print displays or two-up products. Fast turnaround times and top quality are becoming more and more important since campaign timeframes are getting ever shorter and poster advertising is increasingly being linked with campaigns in other media. The ROLAND 900 is highly productive in printing one-piece CityLights posters on a format 8 sheet. Traudel Döscher-Trabold from Philip Morris purchasing and Rolf Wankmüller present the five-colour poster printed after a short changeover. With new ideas, Dambach has brought movement to this line of business. And movement was also the keynote during the press demonstration and the supporting programme. Whereas automated plate changing meant that there was comparatively little movement involved in changing over the ROLAND 900 to print a CityLights poster job, the acrobats that followed performing on a tightrope more than made up for this and showed that movement can also stimulate emotions. Dambach has managed to do this and brightened up outdoor advertising by getting ideas moving.