Offset Printing - Web

SUSSEX, WI—May 1, 2008—QuadTech, Inc., announced today that it has purchased Vigitek, a leading designer and manufacturer of 100 percent print inspection technology. The acquisition strengthens print quality solutions for printers and converters in the packaging industry by bringing together QuadTech’s advanced register guidance system with Vigitek’s state-of-the-art print defect detection technology. Vigitek will operate as a subsidiary of QuadTech, and will continue to function as its own entity. “We are excited to combine our companies’ products and know-how to benefit the packaging industry worldwide,” said Karl Fritchen, President of QuadTech. “Vigitek excels at continuous defect detection across the entire press web. QuadTech excels

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY—Just as sheetfed press manufacturers continue to swim upstream with advancements designed to help their customers capture jobs in run lengths once considered best suited for web offset printing, Goss International is paddling downstream by demonstrating an all-new web press concept in Hall 17 at Drupa this month to enable users to compete for high-quality sheetfed work. The M-600 Folia web press system is engineered with M-600 printing units and new sheeter technology for running speeds of up to 30,000 sph. The new sheeter, developed in partnership with Vits, enables web offset printing on coated paper stocks with standard sheetfed inks, but without

BOLINGBROOK—April 14, 2008—Goss International demonstrated its all-new M-600 Folia press system to sales representatives and dealers at its facility in Montataire, France on April 2. The press will be in full operation at the company’s stand in hall 17 at the drupa show. Announced publicly in March, the M-600 Folia press is designed as a high-productivity web offset alternative for producing up to B1-format sheeted products. The system utilizes M­600 printing units, sheetfed inks and new sheeter technology developed in partnership with VITS to print on coated stocks without a dryer. The press printed 30,000 high-quality perfected sheets per hour during the pre-drupa demonstration

HOD HASHARON, ISRAEL—April 8, 2008—Advanced Vision Technology (AVT) and its subsidiary Graphic Microsystems Inc. (GMI) will be launching new solutions for a variety of printing applications as part of their joint presence at drupa in Hall 3, Stand F69. New solutions include the AVT PrintVision/Orion automatic inspection solution for folding carton single package applications; the innovative AVT AconPro solution for advanced press control; the GMI ColorQuick II with new capabilities and pre-press connections for heat-set web printers; Microcolor III remote ink control solution for narrow web applications; the ColorQuick N color control solution for the newspaper market, and other solutions that address new market

OOSTERHOUT, THE NETHERLANDS—April, 2008—“I am markless”. . .With this new slogan, Q.I. Press Controls will present their new products during DRUPA 2008. The world of graphics is changing so rapidly, that we have to be positioned there where the action is, in person. Only then can we develop real innovations and fully understand your ambition to achieve perfect print quality, with minimal waste, whilst implementing the complete “light’s out” printing concept. So the more digitalized the world becomes, the more personalized the approach of Q.I. Press Controls is going to be, to help you to achieve your goals. “I am” Against this background, Q.I.

ONE OUTSTANDING manufacturing manager stood out from the crowd this year, and that is Jeff Wendt, pressroom manager at Menomonee Falls, WI-based Arandell Corp. Wendt is the recipient of the 2008 H. Howard Flint II Pressroom Manager of the Year Award. The award is dedicated to the memory of H. Howard Flint, who passed away in 2005, and is given each year to a web offset pressman or supervisor who has excelled in the profession. Wendt joined Arandell in 1989 as a job planner and worked his way up through the ranks to pressroom manager. He has been a true innovator at Arandell, pushing

ONCE A year, the Web Offset Association (WOA) selects one printing industry executive who has reached an unsurpassed level of excellence and industry achievement to receive its Harry V. Quadracci VISION Award. Ken Field Sr., president and CEO of Itasca, IL-based Continental Web Press, meets these qualifications. Field has operated his company with a “boutique mentality,” focusing on fulfilling the individual needs of customers, investing in new technology and placing a strong emphasis on employee training. Because of his outstanding achievement in creating one of the most successful commercial printing operations in Chicago from the ground up, and his continued involvement with industry organizations,

OUR BELOVED printing industry is forever wrestling with economic uncertainty, while simultaneously marching in the vanguard of one technological revolution after another. Small wonder, then, that users of so-called “conventional” offset technologies have grown particularly adept at the kind of strategic logrolling that is an essential survival skill in this “pushmi-pullyu” business environment. In 2008, negative economic variables like the housing glut, the mortgage credit crisis, rising oil prices and a looming recession, along with print-positive developments like election-year spending, will have their respective down and up pressures on the offset sector. With the 2008 edition of the annual Offset and Beyond conference slated

WITH THE 2008 election cycle in full throttle, the operative word is change. . .as usual. The printing industry is not immune to the calls for change. Our history demonstrates our mastery of change. With the ripple effects of the housing mortgage meltdown, energy prices spiraling out of sight, healthcare costs rising and the drumbeat of a recession, do we have a choice but to change? No. But what we change will separate the printing companies as leaders or laggards. Actions we continue will be as important as actions we start or stop. In every downturn, whether it is an official recession or not,

JIM ANDERSEN is arguably the most well-known figure in the direct mail printing realm. The president and CEO of Chanhassen, MN-based IWCO Direct was a key advocate in the decade-long struggle to enact postal reform, which was finally achieved at the end of 2006. He met with politicians and sat down with key leaders of other industries to protect the interest of their common goal: a viable, enduring U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Andersen took the helm at IWCO Direct in April of 1999. As an equity partner, Andersen tapped his wide-ranging business experiences in guiding IWCO Direct—experiences that include more than 20 years in