Special Drupa Coverage — Manufacturers Press Ahead

Focusing much attention at Drupa on its name change and rebranding from MAN Roland to manroland, the press manufacturer debuted a new 20?, 13,000 sph contender: the Roland 50, which incorporates technology from its XXL press platform.

This includes double-size printing cylinders and transferters that allow printing on substrates ranging from 0.04-mil lightweight papers to 0.8-mil board stocks. Remote adjustment of substrate thickness is automatic, axial and radial register is via the plate cylinders, and--like with its XXL presses--diagonal register works via the transferter.

Automation Plus

Additional features such as easily cleanable, QuickChange surface ink fountains, automated plate changers, blanket washing devices and ColorPilot online color control make the press well-suited for short runs. With its RCI remote ink key control, the operator panel (integrated within the delivery) enables one-person operation.

At the other end of the size spectrum, manroland announced the sale of its first Roland 900 XXL in a perfecting configuration to a German customer. The manufacturer's perfecting technology can now accommodate up to a 51.2x72.8? sheet size. At Drupa, it exhibited a Roland 900-7B+ (47.2x63.8? maximum sheet size) perfector equipped with the new InlineColorPilot color control system and the APL fully automatic plate changing system.

Also in operation, a 29? Roland 500 incorporated an Inline-Foiler Prindor cold foil transfer module; a six-color Roland 700 HiPrint scored points with InlineInspector and InlineSorter for quality control, and QuickChange for fast makereadies; and a Roland 700 DirectDrive 10-color perfector was shown.

On the commercial web front, manroland highlighted a printing unit for a 96-page, 112?-wide Lithoman. A Rotoman unit previewed the DynaChange system that allows plates changes at full press speeds. In the newspaper arena, a Colorman unit showcased the APL plate changing system based on robotic technology. Also, an Innocure UV dryer addressed the growing interest in hybrid heatset-coldset combination printing.