Italian Printer's Drupa Commitment For 96pp Press

Edited by the Printingtalk editorial team Jun 6, 2008

Italian printer Mazzucchelli has signed a letter of intent at Drupa 2008 to buy a second Goss 96-page Sunday commercial web press.

Mazzucchelli is already committed to the installation of what is claimed to be the world's first 96-page commercial web press in early 2009.

The second 96-page press is due to be installed at Mazzucchelli's facility in Seriate (Italy).

The four-unit Sunday 5000 presses at Mazzucchelli will be equipped with Goss's Contiweb FD pasters, Ecocool dryers with integrated chill rolls and the company's Autoplate fully-automatic plate changing system.

Pierluigi Guerini, a director at Mazzucchelli, said: "Our announcement at Drupa confirms our full confidence in the Goss International team and in the new 96-page Sunday press.

This press breaks the rules and will give us clear competitive advantages in satisfying our current customers, attracting new customers and providing a new level of value.

Guerini added that Mazzucchelli has had excellent results with 48-page and 64-page Goss Sunday presses with pinless folders.

He said the wider 96-page format represents the next breakthrough, combining added high-pagination productivity with short-run efficiency.

Goss International first announced that it would develop the Sunday 5000 press in 2007.

A 2,860mm (112-inch) web width is said to allow printing of 96 full A4 magazine pages per cylinder revolution at up to 40,000 impressions per hour.

Gapless blanket technology is described as an integral component, reducing vibration to enable high speed and high print quality with the wider 12 x 4 long-grain cylinder configuration.

The company's chief executive officer, Bob Brown, explained: "Our gapless blanket Sunday press is a differentiating advantage that we continue to provide to create new opportunities for our customers and for web offset printing.

We are grateful for the opportunity to pursue this ground breaking new project with Mazzucchelli, a true innovator and pioneer in high-pagination web printing.