IMC America

By Mark Michelson SEWICKLEY, PA—The weather was warm and the leaves still green on trees blanketing the hills surrounding the headquarters of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF), located just outside of Pittsburgh. But Christmas still came early with the official dedication of its recently donated four-color, 38˝ MAN Roland Rotoman heatset commercial web press equipped with auxiliaries gifted from several manufacturers. Held September 19th, the "Webtoberfest" celebration—complete with German fare, oompah music, and an assortment of German Octoberfest beers and wine—was attended by about 350 industry dignitaries, including GATF board members and staff, industry suppliers, association execs, as well as a special delegation from

BY CHRIS BAUER In an industry where time is money, web offset printers want the fastest, easiest-to-use equipment they can find. When looking for palletizing and stacking machines, they won't accept second-rate gear. "Our customers expect reliable, durable and easy-to-maintain machines with simple and intuitive makeready adjustments," asserts Terry Bradford, product manager for Heidelberg, which represents Rima-System in North America. "The huge volume of paper produced by today's high-speed presses makes robotic palletizing much more cost-effective, and the consistently high quality of robotically palletized loads translates to more efficient operation of bindery equipment further downstream." Similarly, according to Lee Terry, sales manager for Roskam Automatic Machinery, the emergence of high-speed