Offset Printing

Graphicscalve looks to the future with a new Komori web offset machine

Wednesday 11. October 2023 - High quality, innovation, speed of service and customer care are pillars of the corporate strategy that has accompanied Graphicscalves journey for over 40 years. The latest investment, to continue the development and growth of the business, is a Komori System 38 rotary press.

Graphicscalve was born in the late 70s as an artisan typography from an entrepreneurial idea of the brothers Ezio and Walter Ferrari, driven by an authentic passion for printing and an unmistakable charisma.
Over time, the small artisan reality has transformed into a real graphic industry, now led by the Ferrari brothers together with the second generation: their children Alessandra, Silvia, Antonio and Giovanni. In 2011, to further diversify the offer, the family decided to combine traditional sheet and reel offset printing with new services related to the world of transactional printing and Direct Marketing. In 2016, production was expanded with a second plant in Costa di Mezzate, in the province of Bergamo and this made it possible to extend the business, thanks to increasingly important partnerships with publishing and industrial groups.
Development strategies
Walter Ferrari, owner of Graphicscalve, underlined: “In recent years the company has been renewed at an organizational and technological level to follow the evolution of the market and, at the same time, give continuity to the entrepreneurial activity. The core business, at the moment, consists of commercial printing on paper with offset or digital technology, with an important expansion of the offer also in the field of Visual Communication. We also offer internal IT services for the design of dedicated software that allow companies to be supported in the management of production flows”. From mailing to mandatory communication, from point of sale communication to leaflets, brochures and catalogues, Graphicscalve offers sheet and web offset printing services and digital printing services, internally following all the processing phases of the printed product. The clientele is mostly national and, in part, also focused abroad, but the goal is to try to expand the markets thanks to innovative technologies that make it possible to manage a high variety of formats and quantities. The target sectors include banks, insurance companies, furniture, clothing, food & beverage and, very importantly, the third sector, for which dedicated mailings are created.
Walter Ferrari continues: “What we focus on today is to offer a 360° service characterized by rapid response and high quality. We want to cover all the customer’s needs, from communicating an event at the point of sale to personalized communication. Our goal is to support the customer and follow him on his journey from the initial project to the finishing. For this reason we have equipped ourselves with a complete fleet of machines that includes digital printing and cutting plotters, sheet and web offset printing, small format sheet digital printing, up to finishing equipment, such as cutting, folding, die-cutting, creasing, binding and enveloping. In this way we can guarantee a complete service with high added value”.
A new press in the press room
Graphicscalve’s fleet has recently expanded with the new Komori System 38S, the offset press equipped with the KHS-AI Link system for one-step management of register adjustments, color matching and folding settings. The KHS system generates control synergies that offer a significant reduction in paper waste and preparation times and, at the same time, a reduction in ink and solvent consumption. Among the pluses of the machine are constant quality even at maximum printing speeds, which reach up to 50,000 rpm, high productivity and, last but not least, an excellent cost-performance ratio.
Walter Ferrari explains: “We made an assessment of the market, dictated by decreasing print volumes and requests for increasingly tighter delivery times; this led us to choose a fast machine, with high quality, and reduced start-up times and waste. The natural choice was Komori’s System 38. It guarantees us the plate change with Full APC in a short time and good copies with low waste percentages. The machine is equipped with a perforator and a sheeter delivery device. In addition, a trimming line has been added which allows for the delivery of finished products. It is a machine built on our needs. In fact, our goal is to supply finished products and make the most of short start-ups, with smaller quantities and maximum customization of the printed products. Among the determining factors in the choice, certainly the speed of the start-up times and also a bigger format that allows us greater versatility. With this installation we intend to expand the target sectors, such as that of technical publishing. In fact, in a few months we will also include a bookbinding system in our finishing department, and we already have the saddle sticher in stock; in this way we will complete the production flow in order to be able to provide a complete job”.
Graphicscalve focuses on the market of medium-short runs and Komori’s web-offset technology is ideal for printing services both for the world of large-scale distribution and for the commercial and publishing markets. Thanks to the new web offset system, the company is able to manage a high variety of formats and print runs, while maintaining excellent print quality. As for Komori’s assistance and support in the installation and training phases, Walter Ferrari comments: “We are satisfied with the work done, the project was completed on time. Komori has kept its promises and for us it is a fundamental aspect of the relationship with our suppliers, because only in this way can we guarantee service to our customers”. And he concludes: “We made this investment because we believe in the future of print media and in our future, confident of the managerial contribution that the second generation will bring. Over time, customer needs evolve and we try to keep pace with these changes. It is necessary to be able to offer multimedia communication, because paper can represent, today more than ever, a driving force for virtual media. Important results can be obtained from the combination of physical and digital media”.