With its slogan “WE ARE PRINT”, manroland works with printers to ensure the printed medium continues to be the most powerful and cost effective on the planet. The main strategy for reaching that goal is by adding processes inline to the printing presses as technology advances continue to make it possible to do more. At drupa 2012, manroland will showcase the new upgrades to its inline applications which are available for the various press models. It will also unveil some new inline innovations, making print more attractive and more profitable, further demonstrating that manroland is the printer’s high-performance business partner.

drupa 2012 has already been announced as the ultimate inkjet show. Many suppliers will present new solutions to print in full colour with inkjet technology on various press sizes, in sheetfed or web.

At manroland sheetfed we know that many of these new solutions don’t meet print market requirements because either the print quality level is not yet reaching the offset standard, or the cost per copy is far above the cost for offset products. We believe the best solution is to combine the best of both worlds, adding inkjet variable printing capabilities to the offset quality and speed in full colour printing. We call it ‘hybrid printing’ to benefit from the low cost of offset production and the high value of the digital print. The added value is clear: individualisation of every copy (bar/matrix codes, names, texts), versioning (languages, regions), additional functions such as Track&Trace and security. There is an economic benefit of hybrid production due to fewer process steps and higher performance (i.e. register).

For this purpose, manroland developed a new application module including a patented suction cylinder and adapted the grippers to fit with the very close distance (<1mm) between the inkjet heads and the substrate. This module can integrate single or multiple inkjet print heads that can be supplied by any manufacturer such as Atlantic Zeisser, tested so far. These print heads are fixed to a print bar covering the whole printable surface of the sheets and reach a 600 dpi monochrome quality at 7000 s/h or 300 dpi monochrome up to 14000 s/h and have no limitation regarding format and substrate capabilities of the presses. Using UVinks, the system works on any substrate with coated or uncoated and glossy or silk surface, eco-material or even plastics, as the application module is equipped with the necessary LED UV-light dryer with emission corresponding to the print width and indexing corresponding to the print length. This energy-efficient solution provided by Eltosch/Hönle works at low temperature. The development of the same print heads with water based inks is in progress and will qualify the use of this hybrid technology for food packaging.

The inline quality control family of products of manroland sheetfed is also expanding at drupa 2012 with the following additions:

? The InlineColorPilot, the fastest system in the market (only three sheets are needed for a complete measurement) that measures the printed sheets inside the press and automatically regulates the inking units, can now be upgraded with InlineRegister, Colorimetry and in combination with UV interdeck drying.

? The InlineRegister does not need any additional measuring device, requiring only the InlineColorPilot and software that recognizes the special Control Bar with register marks to control lateral, circumferential and diagonal register.

? The Colorimetry is now available as an upgrade to the InlineColorPilot to perform quality control with L*a*b*-values which can be shown with every measurement and constitute part of the job protocol.

? The new ProcessMonitor software for quality control with the various ColorPilot versions provides analysis, display and evaluation of printing quality and print run stability. Using a new color bar, the software checks of print quality are within a selectable standard (i.e. ISO 12647-2) and offer a deep analysis of the print run stability and extensive quality statistics.

? To guarantee the production of 100% good sheets in the delivery pile, the InlineInspector 2.0 is now available in a single or a multiple camera system which will check for hickeys, scratches, streaks, doubling, noticeable colour deviations, noticeable register deviations and substrate defects at the maximum press speed of up to 18.000 s/h. The advantages of the system are fully automatic inspection; fully automatic mark of bad sheets; no handoperated random inspection required; high delivery quality and reduction of waste sheets. The system compares all printed sheets scanned with a resolution of 100 dpi (single camera) or 200 dpi (four cameras) to a pdf and detects text mistakes down to 4pt size. Bad sheets will either be marked within the stack with a tab inserter, to be easily identified after production, or rejected in the ROLAND InlineSorter waste bin to guarantee a defect free pile of sheets in the delivery.

When it comes to adding value to print, manroland sheetfed is also adding efficiency to a number of processes:

? The InlineFoiler, on show at drupa 2012, features an indexing system that offers up to 55% waste reduction of the cold foil. A patented vacuum based loop memory makes saving of cold foil in the channel and format relating to job orders with minimum format of 390 mm a reality. This foil indexing is unique as it can be used in both variations - single-reel or multi-reel operation.  

? The ROLAND 200H running special UV-inks is now available with Low Energy Curing system which is integrated in the short sheet travel to the high pile delivery.

? InlinePerfecting is making a giant leap in productivity with its integration in the ROLAND 900 XXL press in size 8. This unique combination offers high quality perfecting printing of 64 DIN A4 pages at the rate of 10.000 s/h, which is equal to the volume a 3B perfecting press could do if it could run at 40.000 s/h! The ROLAND 900 XXL Perfector size 8 even provides a larger sheet size than the equivalent straight printing model, with a maximum of 1.310 x 1.870mm, it is 10 mm longer and 20mm wider. The maximum printing area of the straight press is preserved also during perfecting. All cylinders of the perfecting unit are double-sized to ensure a consistent and smooth sheet travel during perfecting. Standard OptiPrint Jackets on the impression cylinder offer the best possible print quality in perfecting comparable to the achievable print quality in 3B size. The Automatic Plate Loading (APL) speeds up the make-ready and the InlineColorPilot technology, integrated in the press, reduces waste while maintaining top quality and colour consistency.

? InlineLogistics: manroland sheetfed moves tons of cardboard effortlessly!  With almost 300 AUPASYS material logistics systems installed and connected to 200 ROLAND presses from 3B to XXL size, manroland sheetfed keeps its packaging presses running non-stop all around the world. Industrial print production of packaging requires material logistics systems that are fully integrated in the press and take full advantage of press automation to guarantee the highest productivity with the highest quality. manroland sheetfed offers everything from a single source, with optimum planning to meet the customer’s needs and total project coordination. Based in Europe and North America, its operations cover 28 countries and are tailor made to fit the specific printed products, plants and environment of every customer. Various solutions are available for the feeders and the deliveries of all press formats, as well as various automation levels for AUPASYS pile turning stations.