Offset Printing
Drent Goebel opens up New Markets
Thursday 22. May 2008 - Offering better Value for Money
Drent Goebel was the first press manufacturer in the industry to offer full size variability in offset printing opening up completely new markets.
Historically, offset has always been a process used to print high quality images on paper and paperboard, but it could never compete with flexography or gravure in the flexible packaging and label industry. With complete size variability, these two markets are also opened up for offset press manufacturers. Drent Goebel laid the first foundations and has installations running flexible packaging, labels and even heavy paperboard.
There is a trend towards promotional packaging, which is used just once. As a result of this, printers are seeing fewer repeat orders and the runs are getting shorter. There is a requirement for a greater variety of packaging. What is more, the total throughput needs to go faster. Our customers principals want to set themselves apart with new types of packaging, added to which we have to observe more stringent legislation. There are increasing restrictions coming up on the use of solvents for printing packaging.
All end-customers want eye-catching printing, which stands out clearly from the norm in packaging. Print quality is being forced upwards unremittingly and this same print quality has to be repeatable. Printers need to have their workflow well sorted out. Short throughput timescales are required to provide faster time to market. They believe that keeping printed substrates in stock is too expensive and has no place in this age. In short, it needs to be better, faster and cost no more – preferably less.
Answers in a changing market
If you look at where the focused Drent Goebel customers position themselves, you will see that they make every effort to respond to these changing demands from the market. How? By substantially increasing production with the same manning levels or maintaining production with fewer people. By seeking an alternative to the use of solvents. By reduced downtime and shorter set-up times. By offering better value for money. They standardize the entire workflow, from prepress to product delivery, which ultimately results in lower cost and hopefully higher profit margins.
Get rid of cassettes
Web-offset has been an established printing technology for much longer, albeit for paper printing with fixed repeat lengths. Newspapers, magazines, free local papers, leaflets, brochures and books come to mind. If there were a need for web-offset presses with different repeat lengths, printers with web-offset presses would have to invest in cassettes. Each cassette had a three-cylinder system: one for the plate, one for the rubber blanket and one for the impression cylinder. This cassette system was a way forward for printers having to work with just a few interrelated repeat lengths. Anyone wanting to switch to a different format would be faced with the high cost and long lead-time for this type of cassette. Cassettes are only effective with long print runs and identical formats. The market is moving in exactly the opposite direction.
No standards for labels and packaging
Printers who wanted to utilize the web-offset process for label and packaging printing were faced with extremely high costs for cassettes, which were needed for each size. Nothing is standard in the label and packaging market. In 2002 we developed the VSOP especially for this market. This machine operates with sleeves instead of expensive cassettes. A set of sleeves is around 80 to 90 percent more cost-effective than a cassette of the same print size.
Greatest innovation
Drent Goebels VSOP is the first web-offset printing press that can print in all variable repeat lengths. The circumference of the plate and rubber blanket sleeve determines the repeat length and we are able to supply the sleeves in whatever sizes are required. Following the introduction of the VSOP, the market views our variable repeat length web-offset machine as a fully-fledged alternative to gravure, flexo and sheet-fed offset.
Seeing is believing at drupa 2008
As with most new developments, printers need to see them before actually believing all the capabilities on offer. This year you get the chance to see Drent Goebels VSOP press at the biggest show in the graphic arts industry, drupa 2008.
Drent Goebel will be in Hall 16 on booth C39 and will be showing a 5-color VSOP with a web width of 33 inches. The press will run with both UV and EB curing on 4 different substrates for wrap-around labels, shrink sleeves, flexible packaging and cardboard packaging.