Automated, Integrated Web Production Focus At Ipex

The Goss International stand at Ipex 2006 features more than an array of web offset technologies.

The Goss International stand at Ipex 2006 features more than an array of web offset technologies.

Goss said that the common purpose behind those diverse technologies, and the way they work together, reflects a clear vision of what it will take to create continuing opportunities in the web offset sector.

Goss International's chief executive officer, Bob Brown, said: "We are focused on completely automated and integrated production that will strengthen the impact and cost-effectiveness of web offset products.

When we actually achieve this type of ultra-automated production process is not as important as how each incremental step along the way is making web offset more competitive and attractive among media options." Several technologies on display at Ipex are already contributing towards that vision, said Goss.

The Goss Web Centre workflow system and Omni Makeready modules are claimed to present opportunities to use digital data to enhance productivity and efficiency.

The Goss Automatic Transfer system is said to allow automated on-the-run job change-overs without stopping the press for a make-ready.

Goss is also highlighting its Autoplate technology at Ipex, along with the latest advances in its M-600 and Sunday presses, Pacesetter saddlestitchers, Ecocool dryers, Contiweb splicers and pinless folders.

Antoine Chevalier, Goss International's director of commercial web product management, said: "Multiple innovations are now coming together to allow printers to redefine web offset productivity, print quality and efficiency standards." As competition to attract consumer attention and advertising revenue intensifies among all media, Goss believes the web offset process is in a strong position.

Chevalier explained: "There is no longer a print quality difference between sheetfed and web and make-ready and waste reduction improvements are extending the viability of web to short run lengths once reserved exclusively for sheetfed." Wider, faster web offset presses are also competing with gravure printing, whilst advances in efficiency, product impact and product personalisation are being introduced at both ends of the spectrum, he added.

And he continued: "Web offset products are getting more sophisticated, making them more appealing to consumers and advertisers.

We can continue to apply innovative technologies and ideas to produce these smarter products even faster and more efficiently." He also pointed to personalisation and targeting of printed products, faster productivity and turn-around times, lower waste, more integrated and automated production processes, hybrid products with a wider variety of inserted content and more versatile formats as areas of opportunity for web offset.

The Goss International presentation at Ipex 2006, in the company's opinion, reflects a belief that web offset has not reached a technical plateau but rather a new threshold of opportunity.

Brown concluded: "I believe web presses and finishing systems could eventually run continuously, without stopping for makereadies; that a single, industry-standard electronic file could govern a job from content generation to delivery and that a single operator could be able to run a press from a computer touch screen.

We are committed to working with printers to deliver on the vision of automated, 'lights out' web offset production, because that is what will make this medium a more compelling choice for advertisers.".

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