Offset Printing

Worldwide Offset On Demand Open House

Monday 29. November 2010 - On October 14-15, following a long summer and just as fall was taking on a deeper tone, Komori held the Worldwide Offset On Demand Open House for overseas customers for two days at the Tsukuba Plant. At this open house, demonstrations of 'Offset On Demand' and 'Package and Value Added Printing by the H-UV System' were presented.

Blessed by very good weather, a total of 104 visitors took part in the event.
During the open house, three demonstrations were presented on the morning and afternoon of October 14 and on the morning of October 15.
The visitors assembled in one of the conference rooms in the Tsukuba Plant. Mr. Tanaka, section chief of the overseas sales division, and Mr. Takahashi of the web offset/sales technology division, took turns as emcees of the proceedings.
Komori’s top executives were introduced at the beginning of the open house.
This was followed by an opening address by Yoshiharu Komori, president, chairman and CEO of Komori Corporation.
“I would like to express my sincere appreciation to our valued and important customers for taking time out of your busy schedules to come to our Worldwide Offset On Demand Open House. I also wish to offer my gratitude for your patronage of our printing presses. Komori was founded in 1923, so we are celebrating our 87th anniversary this year. Ever since our establishment, Komori has supplied high-quality, high-performance printing presses to countries around the world with the basic ideal of contributing to society and culture by developing products with advanced technologies from the customers’ standpoint. The environment surrounding the printing industry at the present time is one of very substantial changes, including the growth of digitalization and the need to develop eco-friendly products and services. Printing needs are becoming much more diverse. In responding to these changes, Komori is developing environmentally responsible products, working assiduously to improve the quality and performance of printing presses, and providing users with products and systems that utilize the latest technologies and are capable of harnessing the power of advanced networks. At this open house, you will see demonstrations of Offset On Demand, which shortens printing time, reduces paper waste and shortens the printing process itself, all the while maintaining high print quality and high productivity. I hope this open house is an event in which all of you attending today can see the passion that we of the Komori Group have for printing and printing machines as we hew to our management ideal of being an enterprise that inspires customer kando.”
This speech was followed by a technical explanation of the demonstrations by Mr. Yoshikawa, manager of the Sales Promotion Department.
Using video in this technical briefing, Mr. Yoshikawa explained in detail the Offset On Demand concept, the makeup of the Offset On Demand System Package, the KHS-AI system, its characteristics, its role, and its differences from the previous KHS system, a comparison of printing with conventional oil-based inks and H-UV printing, the mechanism of H-UV printing, its environmental aspects, and the product lineup.
After a ten-minute break, the customers went on a walk-through of the Tsukuba Plant. The visitors were divided into groups by language and toured the plant accompanied by interpreters. Customers who were seeing the inside of the plant for the first time expressed their amazement at the state-of-art production facilities.
The visitors watched a video-assisted technical explanation and a brief demonstration of a special specification Lithrone SX40 and a Lithrone SX40RP that were installed in the plant. This presentation was made by Mr. Uehara, section manager of the overseas sales division.
After viewing the plant, the visitors moved to the Demonstration Center in the Komori Graphic Technology Center (hereinafter KGC), after which the demonstrations began. Demonstrations were performed using three models, an H-UV-equipped four-color Lithrone S26, an eight-color Lithrone S40P, and a six-color Lithrone S40 equipped with drying unit, coater and extended delivery.
The presenters for the demonstrations were Ms. Nakajima of the KGC and Mr. Wrigglesworth, the vice director of the Center.
At the beginning of the demos, the spotlight was placed directly on ‘Offset On Demand.’ Using the four-color Lithrone S26 and the eight-color Lithrone S40P, both equipped with H-UV and KHS-AI, the ‘Offset On Demand’ business model – which integrates ’20 Matching,’ where final printing is enabled in just 20 sheets from start-up, with prepress, press and postpress – was introduced. At this open house, the paper guillotine was provided by Nagai Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd. and the binding equipment was provided by Horizon International Inc.
Visitors were able to watch three jobs in the demo of the four-color Lithrone S26 equipped with the H-UV system.
* This machine is configured with one 120W ozone-less lamp and the maximum printing speed during final printing for each job was 16,000 sheets per hour.
[Demonstration Highlights]
? The ability to perform finishing processes immediately after printing thanks to the superior drying performance of the H-UV system
? The effectiveness in reducing plate costs achieved by work and turn
? ’20 Matching’ achieved by KHS-AI and the H-UV system
[Demonstration flow]
In Job 1, using ‘rough gloss paper,’ register/color matched 4-color printing on front side was started and 300 sheets were printed. Without plate changing, printed sheets were immediately moved to the feeder for Job 2 and printed on back side (work-and-turn). After checked front/back registration, 300 sheets were printed and proceeded them to finishing process. Then, job changeover (removing -> ink down -> plate changing -> pre-inking) was conducted for Job 3. In Job 3, using ‘coated paper,’ single-sided 4-color printing was conducted. After color comparison between 20th printed sheet and digital proof prepared at the DoNet Center of the KGC, 300 sheets were printed for production.
[Image of printing]
After completion of final printing of the work-and-turn printing in Job 2, printing samples that had been cut and folded in the postpress finishing stage were distributed to the attendees, and they were able to check the fast drying, print quality and smell.
Next a total of three jobs were run in a demonstration of the eight-color Lithrone S40P (LS-840P) equipped with the H-UV system.
* This press is equipped with two ozone-less 160W lamps, one in the delivery and one in the perfecting unit. The maximum printing speed during final printing for each job was 15,000 sheets per hour.
[Demonstration Highlights]
? The ability to perform finishing processes immediately after printing thanks to the superior drying performance of the H-UV system
? The high print quality on both front and back as a result of the jacket-less cylinders enabled by the H-UV system
? Improvement in running costs due to the jacket-less cylinder specification
? ’20 Matching’ achieved by KHS-AI and the H-UV system
? Introduction to the stability of nonstop printing enabled by the PDC-SX (spectrophotometer), a new device equipped on the machine for reference, and PQA-S (Print Quality Assessment System)
[Demonstration flow]
In Job 1, using ‘coated paper,’ register/color matched 4-over-4 printing was started and 300 sheets were printed. Without plate changing, moved on to Job 2. In Job 2, using ‘rough gloss paper,’ 4-over-4 printing was conducted. After checked front/back registration, 300 sheets were printed and proceeded them to finishing process. After that, saddle-stitched 12-page brochure was produced by combining with the cover page printed on the LS-426. Then, job changeover (removing -> ink down -> plate changing -> pre-inking) was conducted for Job 3. In Job 3, using ‘coated cardboard’, 4-over-4 printing was conducted. After color comparison between 20th printed sheet and digital proof, 300 sheets were printed for production.
[Image of printing]
After completion of final printing for Job1 and saddle-stitched 12-page brochure produced in Job 2, printing samples were distributed to the attendees so that they could confirm for themselves the power of ‘Offset On Demand.’
During the job changeover that took place in this demonstration, the printing samples on exhibition at the venue were explained.
Following this, a demonstration of package and value added printing by the H-UV system on the Lithrone S40 (LS-640 + DU + C + Extended Delivery) was presented.
A total of five jobs were run during the demonstration, and attendees were able to observe high added value printing on cardboard and aluminum metalized paper.
* During this demonstration, the attendees were able to watch the H-UV system, which consisted of one ozone-less UV lamp (160W) in the drying unit at a position and distance where conditions approximate the normal ozone-less UV lamp that is equipped in the upswing of the delivery of this press, which is capable of conventional UV printing, conventional oil-based printing, and H-UV printing. The printing speed during final printing for each job was 12,000 sheets per hour.
[Demonstration Highlights]
? Package and value added printing on a special substrate with the H-UV system
? The low initial cost and power saving of the H-UV system
? Environmental friendliness through nonalcohol printing and the reduction of CO2 emissions
[Demonstration flow]
By using the same plate from Job 1 through 5, showed comparison of effects such as printed on different paper and added different value on same paper. 150 sheets were printed for each job. In Job 1, after plate changing, pre-inking and register/color adjustment, 4-color printing was conducted on ‘cardboard’ (0.4 mm). In Job 2, same image and paper as job 1 plus OP varnish and gloss coating for drip-off. In Job 3, using ‘aluminum metalized paper,’ 4-color printing was conducted. In Job 4, using the same paper, white ink was printed and cured by interdeck UV and printed 4-color. In the last Job 5, after the same process as Job 4, adding OP varnish and gloss coating for drip-off.
[Image of printing]
During the job changeover that took place in this demonstration, there was an explanation of the printing samples on exhibition at the venue.
After the completion of final printing for Job 5, printing samples were handed out to the attendees and they could check the fast drying and the effects of high added value printing.
After the completion of the demonstrations on these three different presses, the participants took a close look at the machines and the printing samples that were exhibited. The printing samples prepared for this open house included aluminum metalized paper and clear files that were produced with the H-UV system, printing on PP synthetic paper, printed items that allowed a comparison of the quality differences among conventional oil-based printing, UV printing and H-UV printing, a sample book with a graph showing the density changes and an explanation for the brochure printed after just 20 sheets of startup printing, and various samples that allowed the participants to confirm the power of Offset On Demand by H-UV printing and high added value printing.
This open house was deemed very successful when it ended.
Komori wishes to thank all of the participants who came all the way from many countries to take part in our open house. The Komori Group will hold many such events in the future, and we look forward to seeing all of you again.