Customers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland joined the Offenbach team at a one day program which included product presentations and print demonstrations on ROLAND machines from small format presses up to the largest perfecting press.

The opening address was by manroland Managing Director, Alfred Rothlaender, who promised customers an interesting day with an insight into future product development and an overview of the company's commitment.

Deputy Head of Global Sales, Dr Peter Conrady, presented the product portfolio from a ROLAND 200 small format press generally for standard applications and with the highest demands, right up to a Format 8 ROLAND 900, XXL press considered to be the largest perfecting machine worldwide. Setting the trend, is manroland's printnetwork which has over 2000 individual networks worldwide and with its IntegrationPilot software, make-ready times are shortened by up to 25 percent resulting in considerable cost-savings.

The live print run with LEC UV on a six-color ROLAND 500 press with coating unit and extended delivery more than proved the theoretical remarks. LEC UV reduces the energy consumption for midsize-format presses by up to two-thirds resulting in energy cost savings, while at the same time taking care of the environment.

The ROLAND 700 DirectDrive inspired the commercial printing houses with short print runs and many job changes. The vision of manroland autoprint is the print production of several jobs by pushing only one single button. Intelligent pre-setting, "self-learning" software, simultaneous plate change in only one minute and software for the automation of make-readys makes this vision a reality.

Ulrich Beitel, Product Manager of manroland sheetfed explained to delegates that up to 62 percent of cold foil consumption can be saved with the new indexed InlineFoiler in combination with the minimum sheet length of 340 mm. Even when the maximum sheet length is covered with cold foil, 20 percent savings are realistic.

manroland sheetfed has also developed a number of performance packages tailored to customers' requirements handling light weight paper, in-mould labels and much more. Software modifications for the ROLAND 700 HiPrint contribute to shorter make-ready time, higher print quality and reduction of waste sheets. DirectDrive enable print houses to correct the print length and the start of print during the print run and the coating plates can be changed simultaneously with the printing plates.

manroland's Volker Sehring, Product Manager of printnetwork, explained the benefits of in-line measuring and registering. The InlineColorPilot automatically controls the register; the first good sheet can be achieved after approx. 100 make-ready Sheets. During the print run ProcessMonitor analyses the print quality to conform to the ISO standard value.

High-speed production was demonstrated using the ROLAND 700 HiPrint HS producing 18,000 per hour with an impressive non-stop logistic system at the feeder and delivery "Even faster is the ROLAND 900, XXL" said Ju?rgen Schunk, manroland's print consultant "4 sheets in format 70 x 100 can be printed with one format 8 sheet, the ROLAND 900, XXL prints 40.000 sheets in format 70 x 100 per hour." The huge press backed-up this statistic by printing a 64 page magazine in just one print run!

Dr Holger Wiese, R&D department, introduced the ground-breaking merger of digital and sheetfed offset printing with the InlineInkjet module. He said a reduction in the number of process steps is more efficient and cost savings. Customers were pleased to receive their individualized print samples with a photo of all participants customized with their name and company

manroland sheetfed will be planning a number of future events and forums – please check the web site for details.