Digital printing technology is a rising star in the printing industry, and the benefits it brings to print service providers (PSPs) means it often steals the limelight from traditional technologies.
However, print production has continued to demand a varied cast. For instance, offset equipment still has a role to play in print — and that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon.
“I think offset presses get a bad rap in the industry, and probably because of marketing or just word of mouth,” Jonathan Wallace, president of Wallace Graphics, says. “But from a quality standpoint, from a speed standpoint, the newer offset presses and that technology — I mean … when you’re talking to the inkjet guys, they’re referring to offset presses where the makereadies are 45 minutes and 700 sheets, and the technology is just so much better. If it’s five minutes and 100 sheets of makeready, it produces a lot better than the critics would make you think.”
Replacing Offset With Offset
For the most part, companies investing in offset now are replacing older offset equipment, and that’s the case at Slate Group. The Lubbock, Texas, shop does 60% of its sales in offset, supported by a trio of Komori presses: two GL540 LED presses with coaters and a GL840P LED advance perfector.
In June, the PSP swapped one of the 540s for an additional eight-color perfector.
“The 540 LED has been tremendous,” Don Denny, owner and president of Slate Group, says. “That was our first 540 and it got us into the 540 market. Well, after much success with the LED and the 540, we got that eight-color, just saw how productive and how efficient it was versus running it through the press, turning it over, taking it back through and running it through the press again, where we could achieve double-sided printing all at once. So, for the efficiency and maxing out our capacity, we had to increase our capabilities, and an eight-color Komori was a perfect fit for that.”
Read this full article on Printing Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
