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News Release from: MAN Roland GB | Subject: Roland 700 Directdrive press
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 07 September 2007
Directdrive Press Achieves 25%-35%
Savings
Between 25 per cent and 35 per cent savings in set-up costs and time are being claimed by MAN Roland following two field test sites of its Roland 700 Directdrive press.
The companies undertaking the tests are both said by MAN Roland Both to have provided enthusiastic comments about the press, citing savings in make-ready time when compared to the standard Roland 700 press that both were previously using At Eindhoven (the Netherlands) Drukkerij Vrijdag prints wrappers for cigars as one of its major product lines
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 12 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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A large percentage of the 200 million wrappers produced by the company each year are destined for the export market.
Refined labels for luxury flip boxes are another part of the product range at the printing company, along with folding cartons for tobacco products and cosmetics, millions of which leave the plant every year.
Two six-colour Roland 700 systems with coating modules are the main production machines at Drukkerij Vrijdag.
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The presses process 70gsm printing material for labels and 90gsm, or 100gsm paper for wrappers.
The range also includes 550gsm cardboard for flip boxes made of solid board.
Vrijdag combines printing and refinement, with stamping, embossing, bronzing and off-line varnishing being important factors in maintaining a market leading position, added MAN Roland.
Mathieu Siemons, operations manager at the Drukkerij Vrijdag, explained: "We do not supply half-finished products but exquisite wrappers, fully-refined luxury packaging and labels.
This is our added value for customers." But the high volume of small products does not necessarily mean large print runs, as customers have increasingly sophisticated needs, often leading to small runs of special labels using only 1,000 sheets, said MAN Roland, although the range of requirements can also go up to 15,000 sheets.
With wrappers, which use 5,000 to 25,000 sheets, the situation is not much different.
In addition, lot sizes of 10,000 to 150,000 sheets of wet-adhesive labels are also produced, primarily for the Dutch beverage industry.
The Directdrive field test press is one of the six-colour Roland 700 systems.
Mathieu Siemons explained the company's investment decision: "After analysing our orders, print runs and offers from competitors, we were fully convinced that the Directdrive machine was right for us." The field test was conducted over one year and was very successful.
On average over the field test year, the company had almost 90 per cent machine availability.
Siemons added: "There were also never any great difficulties that would have prevented production of a job." The five-colour press that the Directdrive machine replaced was supposed to be available for another year as a back-up.
It was, however, only put in to operation once during the first three months and then sold.
The printing company was able to profit from the advantages of the Directdrive from the start and that has continued to be the case for a year and a half.
In all, Drukkerij Vrijdag had 25 per cent savings in set-up times compared to the older Roland 700 presses with an identical configuration.
Depending on the order, those savings may be even higher thanks to parallel plate change and washing, as well as an optimised workflow in the printnet network, said MAN Roland.
Meanwhile in Germany - at Druckhaus Gotz in Ludwigsburg, the company's partners and brothers Thomas and Ulrich Gotz have reported that its Roland 700 Directdrive has achieved 18 million impressions in 10 months.
Since commissioning, it has been almost constantly available.
The press has printed 35 per cent more in a two-shift operation than its predecessor, which was also a five-colour Roland 700 machine, which MAN Roland said was only made possible by Directdrive.
The main focus of production at Druckhaus Gotz is on medical and scientific reference books, as well as schoolbooks for German publishers.
Whilst large format presses of size 6 and 7B dominate the 13 printing units at Gotz, everything that will not work efficiently in large format is done on the Roland 700 press.
Typical work might include part-sheets or posters and other display materials that sometimes require as little as 20 copies.
Thanks to its coating module, the Roland 700 Directdrive is now a specialist machine for book covers, for which the average production is for 4,000 sheets per job.
Thomas Gotz commented: "The smaller the order, the better the advantages of the Roland 700 Directdrive." Approximately 35 per cent of set up and auxiliary times have been done away with through parallel set-up and the high degree of press automation.
These are not just a few minutes a day, but hours that can ultimately be saved.
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