A customer once called the ROTOMAN "the 16-page Queen" because the sun never sets on her realm. Be it in China, the United Arab Emirates or Germany: all over the world, more than 500 ROTOMAN presses produce magazines, direct-mail shots or supplements.

The quality of the most-sold 16-page rotary press was acknowledged once again in the last few months. The ROTOMAN recently convinced the Toppan printing company in China that prints premium magazines such as Elle China and Vogue China. ROTOMAN-user Emirates Printing Press won the Elephant Trophy 2010 of the Sappi International Printers of the Year Awards. Bechtle Druck in Esslingen, Germany, won the German PrintStars Award in 2009 and 2010 as the best magazine or periodical printer. "These are all good reasons to write more chapters in the ROTOMAN success story and further develop the system to meet the changed market requirements," reports Hartmut Massierer, Executive Vice President Commercial Web Printing Systems Business Unit at manroland. "However, we are also aware that customers expect a lot from us: new demands require new technical solutions. As a result we have decided to in future offer two versions of the best 16-page rotary press on the market."

Both presses are designed for different job structures. Whereas the ROTOMAN HiPrint offers the highest print quality with the best price/performance ratio, the ROTOMAN DirectDrive, in addition to the proven quality regarding imprint change and reproducibility, sets new standards in automation.

ROTOMAN DirectDrive: highly-automated reproducibility from the shortest to the longest run
With the possibility to change the form on the run and without any loss of quality at 70,000 copies/hour, the ROTOMAN DirectDrive has no equal. Every printing tower is equipped with two motors and the cylinders can be moved so wide apart that the paper web runs between them contact-free. The advantage: complex diversion of the web through rollers that affects quality, or energy- and maintenance-intensive air bars are no longer needed, and nor is the use of blind plates which generally entails a compromise.

Operation is as simple as it is ingenious. Through the wide separation of the printing cylinders, imprint changes and temporary usage of coating and spot colors are greatly simplified – without any loss of quality and highly flexible as far as choice of paper is concerned.

Another important innovation is the highly-automated reproducibility. For a job change, the operator can begin early to insert the new plates laterally into the easily accessible, completely encapsulated cassettes. After the start command for the job change, autoprint attends to all further tasks. The plates are changed fully automatically and all settings automatically optimized until the press independently recognizes the prescribed quality level. The effect: makeready times and start-up waste are reduced by 50 percent and the autoprint features make life much easier for the operator.

ROTOMAN HiPrint: a cost/performance ratio that has no equal
Designed for the highest print quality at speeds up to 55,000 copies/hour, the ROTOMAN HiPrint provides an unequalled cost/performance ratio. Proven technology made in Germany helps printing companies all over the world to achieve the best print quality – function optimized, standardized, and cost optimized. The outstanding original ROTOMAN inking unit with extensive temperature control permits the use of a wide selection of conventional blankets that are available at reasonable prices worldwide, as opposed to metal back blankets or sleeves.

Also with automation for plate changing and the folder, special attention is paid to maximum reliability, durability, and precision. The high production dependability of the ROTOMAN HiPrint is supplemented by the worldwide service network and the TeleSupportCenter, a sophisticated tool for remote diagnosis and process optimization. Local service presence is an important success factor in an environment of increasing deadline and cost pressure. And this is of course a given for both the ROTOMAN HiPrint and ROTOMAN DirectDrive.