First 96-page Lithoman S goes to Weiss-Druck

-to enable the new levels of productivity in high-volume commercial printing

Rejoicing moment! (From the left) Stephan Steuber, MD, Heinrich Steuber; Karl-Heinz Carell, operations manager, Weiss-Druck; Georg Weiss, MD, Weiss-Druck; Alwin Stadler, regional sales manager, manroland; Robert Ostler, MD, Print Media Ostler & Partner Unternehmensberatung; and Stephan Uder, area sales manager, manroland in happy mood after signing contract for the first 96-page Lithoman S. Being on the next quantum leap in commercial printing in XXL, Germany-based Weiss-Druck has recently ordered a 96-page Lithoman S from manroland.

Scheduled to be installed in 2011, the first 96-page Lithoman S in long grain with a web width of 2,860 millimeters would enable new levels of productivity in high-volume commercial printing. From 0 to 4.32 million pages per hour is the acceleration at which Weiss-Druck will start into the future. With this investment, the printing company advances to print-run volumes that until now were reserved for gravure printing. A well-prepared leap in performance: more than ninety percent of the presses worldwide with a web width of over two meters have been developed and constructed by manroland. The 2.86 meters web width will set a new benchmark.

A customer of manroland since 1994, Weiss-Druck is a family-owned business in its fourth generation, with approximately 1,400 employees in thirty companies (pre-press, printing companies, and publishing houses) at locations in both the eastern and western parts of Germany. All pre-press operations and printing companies are connected by state-of-the-art technology. “With this investment, our company continues its strategy of early investments in innovative technologies. The close cooperation with manroland primarily benefits our customers, as the 96-page Lithoman S allows us to keep offering the highest degree of quality, flexibility and effectiveness,” commented managing director Georg Weiss.

“Many people in the industry think that the installation of 80- and 96-page web presses on the market will result in further consolidations among printing companies. Observers should make a distinction when considering the topic of surplus capacities in webfed and sheetfed offset. In a recession, there is a decreased demand for print products, thus increasing the pricing pressure. manroland views itself as an opinion and technology leader in the printing industry, and the excellent performance of the German printing companies clearly gives them a leading-edge status. Who else is in a position to advance development if not manroland together with its customers? The accompanying cost reductions also allow print products to stay positioned as an attractive and efficient medium of communication,” stated Peter Kuisle, vice president for webfed sales at manroland, commenting on the general outlook in the industry.