drupa 2012 : Offsetting Digital’s Advance

“This drupa was one I will always remember, as manroland sheetfed was at a crossroad regarding our attendance only two months prior to the exhibition,” noted Michael Mugavero, newly named manroland sheetfed managing director and CEO for the United States and Canada. “Under the leadership and inspiration of Mr. Langley, the traditional planning processes of what was manroland in past times was put aside in favor of a solution-driven team that quickly focused on the objectives and made our drupa presence come together in a remarkably short period of time.”

Similarly, drupa was a coming-out party for manroland web systems, now owned by the Possehl Group. Highlights included further developments in its autoprint “One Touch” newspaper and commercial heatset web press operating concept that allows press operators to control the entire printing press from a central console.

The ControlCenter features a ControlPad touchscreen; a SlidePad touchscreen for quality management; a portable, wireless MobilPad mobile control console; and a portable UnitPad touchscreen that replaces large control keypads on the individual printing units.

Goss International separated its booth into three primary zones, including commercial offset, newspapers and packaging, as well as an area devoted to its Lifetime Support service offerings. Orders for 11 Goss web presses were reportedly signed during the show.

A packaging theater was the centerpiece of the booth, attracting large audiences for demonstrations of the all-new Goss Sunday Vpak variable sleeve web offset press units for folding carton, film and label applications. Press units from the world’s first 96-page web press—the Goss Sunday 5000—and the new Goss Colorliner CPS compact newspaper press were also featured, along with units from the new high-speed, single-width Goss Magnum HPS model and the new-generation, 16-page, M-600 model.

“We accomplished what we set out to do at drupa, which was to introduce our customers to innovative ideas for commercial print, packaging and newspaper production, and to demonstrate that we are the strong technology and market leader,” said Goss International President and CEO Jochen Meissner.