Düsseldorf, Germany — MAN Roland’s DICOweb — the integrated printing system that produces offset quality results without plates — will showcase its ability to produce an increasingly broader variety of jobs at drupa. The objective: to multiply the new application opportunities DICOweb offers to the printers who run it. Live demonstrations will illustrate how DICOweb’s in-line finishing systems can be quickly changed to show the growing range of products the press can produce in a single productive pass. “DICOweb is the ultimate in Computer Integrated Manufacturing,” says Christian Cerfontaine, Director of Marketing at MAN Roland Inc. “A digital file and a roll of paper go in one end and finished pieces pump out the other. Add to that the modular flexibility of this press, and you have a machine that can master every market.” An accompanying off-line display at drupa will demonstrate how easily it is to swap-out DICOweb’s cylinders. The procedure changes the cutoff length of the press, further extending its range of formats. “Sheetfed printers shouldn’t be concerned that DICOweb is a web-fed press,” Cerfontaine points out. “Its plate-free automated makereadies give it the ability to handle short runs faster than any sheetfed on the market. So despite its name, DICOweb can be a success in any sheetfed pressroom.” Success at the two beta sites at which DICOwebs have been operating for several years will also be highlighted at drupa. The first working-world DICOweb was installed at Nussbaum Medien in Germany in 2001. It is a 4/4-color coldset configuration with short ink trains, used for printing regional and local newspapers and other publications. Run lengths between 500 and 30,000 copies are the norm there. The DICOweb produces up to 70 jobs per week in six shifts, generating a total of 600,000 copies. Job changeovers take approximately ten minutes. That includes the complete cycle of imaging, fixing and de-imaging, and all makeready tasks. Waste rates of less than 200 copies are further endearing the digitally driven innovation to Nussbaum decision makers. The first commercial DICOweb went into beta at Switzerland’s Stämpfli AG, in 2002. The four-unit heatset press features an integrated flexible folder that’s used to produce catalogs and magazines. The Stämpfli DICOweb is earning its keep by running three shifts a day. According to the company’s owner, Peter Stämpfli, print quality “is already higher than we expected,” and comparable to conventional sheetfed offset work. The beta tests of the system’s integrated folder are producing equally stellar marks. More than 20 different weights of paper have been tested using a variety of folding configurations, offering a plethora of commercial possibilities. With its beta testing complete, Stämpfli is now actively marketing its DICOweb’s record-setting short-run quick-turn capabilities to the publication market, and the campaign is working. DICOweb has already generated new business for the Swiss printer.