Heidelberg

CLIFTON, NJ—A $20 million expansion is under way at Sandy Alexander, based here. The core of the expansion is the installation of two new eight-color Heidelberg Speedmaster CD sheetfed presses with interdeck drying and a double coater capable of combining UV and aqueous coating, running at 15,000 iph. In addition, the company is installing a new off-line double coating/finishing unit, also manufactured by Heidelberg, and similarly rated at 15,000 iph. (Heidelberg plans to debut this coater at Drupa next May, however, Sandy Alexander will be up and running with it before the end of the year.) This new coater offers several competitive advantages, including: Ability

Allied Printing has developed a reputation for treating customers like royalty through full-service capabilities and a deadline-conscious, dedicated staff. BY ERIK CAGLE Allied Printing is celebrating its 50th anniversary by following the credo instilled by its founder, John F. Sommers: Never say no to a customer. And while the landscape of the commercial printing industry has witnessed numerous changes in the way business is conducted, it seems that Mr. Sommers' motto has enjoyed a nice, long shelf life. Never saying no, naturally, means always saying yes—an expensive proposition—yet it is one that has worked for Allied Printing Services Inc. Located five miles east of

Expanded color gamuts, strategic digital halftone proofing launches, imposition proofers and multi-setting thermal devices highlighted the digital proofing component of GRAPH EXPO 99. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO What were the digital proofing flares shot out at GRAPH EXPO 99? One glaring signal: Digital halftone proofing is still riding a high. Equally hot for the contract proofmakers were new devices offering expanded color gamuts, two-sided imposition proofers, new multi-purpose thermal proofsetters and refined remote proofing promises—all of which captured the attention and scrutiny of show attendees, who are looking to purchase the next contract proofer and want to know . . . Who joined

The call for open, device-independent color management is driving more and more prepress workflows. Are closely woven color management tools on the way out? Is ICC compliance the best route for color control? BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO An overall ease of use and a simplification of the process; these may be the two strongest desires driving color management for any prepress professional advocating some sort of consistent, cross-platform, color management standard. Is International Color Consortium (ICC) compliance the answer? Are new, device-independent color management software solutions the key to unlocking color bottlenecks? Recently, Printing Impressions posed these and other questions to a sampling of

There's A dirty little secret among some of the country's largest printers. It's not something they all want their competitors to know. And it has to do with the most overlooked part of the print stream. Their secret? The bindery can sell print jobs. Traditionally, the bindery was seen only as a necessary evil, the unpopular room tucked in a corner of the plant, where the product was finished once all the "real work" of designing and printing was done. Print buyers would look for companies with the most advanced prepress areas and pressrooms, and then expect that the product would be cut, folded

BY ERIK CAGLE It cannot be said that Terry A. Tevis ever sat around wondering when that one opportunity—which would give meaning to his professional career and validate his place in the commercial printing industry—would fall in his lap. Tevis, a 1999 Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame inductee, decided that instead of waiting for opportunity to come knocking at his door, he'd kick a few down. He was satisfied with carving a niche for himself at one company, where he could settle in for the long haul in a comfortable position. Even as Tevis prepares to accept the Hall of Fame honor

You say your shop wants to improve reproduction quality to land more high-end work, but you're not sure you can afford it? Well, the people at Beechmont Press, a mid-sized, Louisville, KY-based printer, say you probably can't afford not to. After making a firm commitment to quality improvement, Beechmont put its production methods and materials under the microscope, and managed, quite profitably, to capture its own high-end slice of the market. Beginning with the obvious, Beechmont management focused on equipment. They installed a five-color, 40˝ Speedmaster, and they gave their conventional prepress an electronic makeover. But along with high-performance equipment purchases, they developed a simple theory:

BY CHERYL A. ADAMS "If you want to know where you're going, you have to know where you've been," says Frank Defino Sr., president and CEO of Tukaiz Communications—a man who is not only aware of his company's history, but has been instrumental in its making. Having been at the helm of the Tukaiz ship for the past 36 years, Defino has guided the firm through a sea of transition—from traditional prepress services to full-service, digital and commercial printing. However, Defino prefers that the Franklin Park, IL-based Tukaiz be called a "digital media communications company" or an "electronic digital media specialist." He also emphasizes

The team at Fontana/Affiliated had already incorporated waterless offset printing and moved to a new facility. The next logical step was waterless CTP. BY CHRISTOPHER CORNELL Waterless? The team at Cheverly, MD-based Fontana Lithograph/Affiliated Graphics knows a number of different meanings for the word "waterless." That word could be used to describe just one of the problems the printer had to overcome as it built its new facility here. Through a revitalization project with the state of Maryland in December 1997, Fontana/Affiliated took ownership of a condemned property, which was nothing more than a slab with a leaking roof and three walls, that had

When Seybold closed the doors to its 1999 San Francisco expo last month, three technology trends stood dominant: the Internet, PDF and the quest for the all-digital workflow. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO If one potent word could sum up the energy, enthusiasm and very direction of Seybold San Francisco, held for the final time this century at the Moscone Center last month, it could easily be: Internet. The Internet, the World Wide Web. Seybold San Francisco was a virtual debutante's ball for the global gateway that is the Internet. New companies emerged as major players for the commercial printing market—all gearing to harness the