"Perfectly Finished Web Printed Products"

The Web Offset Champion Group (WOCG) have released their 8th Best Practice Guide "Perfectly Finished Web Printed Products".

Correctly finishing a printed product is essential to communicate its quality, it can also have a significant impact on profitability. This is because waste in the bindery is expensive as the costs of a defect are at their highest in an almost finished job.

The printed product is the result of a creative design and production process. Finishing is its final stage and cannot be considered in isolation. When things go wrong at the finishing stage, often it is because the bindery is so far removed from the design and specification process that meaningful communication has not taken place. The purpose of WOCG's new guide is to improve results
through better communication and understanding amongst all participants in the workflow - designers, print users, publishers, printers and binders, and their suppliers.

Finishing operations can be either inline with printing or through the use of dedicated offline postpress systems. Finishing applies not only to magazines, books, reports and catalogues and increasingly to newspapers and their products.

The guide addresses three areas:

• The end product and selection of a finishing method;
• Printing process issues to optimise finished products;
• Review of key postpress processing issues including delivery systems, inline finishing,saddle stitching, and perfect adhesive binding.

Many factors can impact on the finished product quality, including incompatible types of binding and/or certain production characteristics (ink type and film weight, paper and drying) or incorrect job preparation. Only a view of production as an interrelated system from job specification to delivery can optimise productivity and waste.

An example is that "correctly stored printed signatures can improve saddle stitching and perfect binding productivity by 25-30%," says, Felix Stirnimann of Muller Martini.

Why best practice?

• To help managers optimise their production and manufacturing strategy, define key factors for success, and identify priorities
• To assist production managers in trouble-shooting and to help identify improvement projects
• To give process improvement team members a common understanding of a subject
• To discuss expectations, roles and procedures with customers, sales and production staff
• Provide a useful reference for experienced production staff, and as a refresher on basic best practices fundamental to productivity and quality

The Web Offset Champion Group was formed in 1998 to "champion" best practice in the web offset printing industry as a tool to improve productivity, quality and safety. Its members: Aylesford Newsprint, Kodak, manroland, MEGTEC, Mu?ller Martini, Quad Tech, SCA and Sun Chemical, and associates include Eurografica, Eltex, Printing Industries of America, System Brunner, Nitto, Trelleborg, Timsons, Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating, Swansea University.

Other publications include the Tool Box, a 242-page compendium of seven best practice guides in English and German. The guides are also available individually in five languages.

• "Roll to web processing"
• "Web break prevention & diagnosis"
• "How to avoid surprises when changing paper grades"
• "Productivity Maintenance - How to run presses longer, leaner and faster"
• "How to get colour approved rapidly and maintain it"
• "Environmental considerations - Energy Economy Efficiency Ecology"
• "Total process colour control & Alternative Screening Technologies"

Free download posters
Champion Club membership is now available to anyone working in the web offset printing industry. Membership is free-of-charge and simply requires registration at www.weboffsetchampions.com

Member benefits include a 10% discount on all publications; and free downloads of useful information such as posters "Roll to Web Processing" and "Web break Diagnosis"

How to obtain WOCG Guides
A – Visit the Web Offset Champion Group official web site at www.weboffsetchampions.com order from 'The Champion Shop' online for only €30 – all users worldwide except USA/Canada
B – Visit the Printing Industries of America web site at http://www.printing.org/node/9709?c=38476
and order from the store online in US$ – all users in the USA/Canada
C – Ask your nearest office of any members of this project to obtain a copy from them: Aylesford Newsprint, Eltex, Kodak, manroland, MEGTEC, Muller Martini, Nitto Denko, Timsons, Trelleborg, QuadTech, SCA, and Sun Chemical.