Despite advances in size and speed of sheetfed presses, those on the web side of the press business―most of whom work for companies also offering sheetfeds―cite growing advantages for state-of-the-art web offset presses.

　　Web offset boasts the traditional ability to economically deliver long runs (above 5,000 to 10,000 impressions) using lower-cost roll stock, often in the lighter weights―under 50 lb. paper―popular in publications, and to provide finished folded products right off the press. Today's web presses, moreover, deliver major advances in makeready and turn-around, print quality, lower waste, cost-effective shorter runs, higher productivity formats and ever-increasing efficiency in industrial style, end-to-end production driven by higher levels of automation.

　　“I see virtually no large-format sheetfed presses pulling work away from full-size web presses,” says Jim Kloepfer, director, commercial web presses for KBA. “I think it would be hard for any sheetfed printer to take work away from a web printer who is printing books, publications or catalogs―anyone who already has a folder on the press. Web press technology has become pretty simple, and the printers who have them are managing them across the entire run length spectrum from 500 up to 300,000.”

　　Notes Kai Schüler, MAN Roland's director of web project management, “Web presses can do magazine, digest and delta folds on the same equipment, and they excel in all the areas where printers seek peak performance―performance in terms of copies per hour, output in terms of pages per hour, throughput in terms of jobs per day.”

　　Goss International, a company that makes only webs, sees its product portfolio as a competitive advantage. “We don't look at the sheetfed market as a threat,” says Graham Trevett, sales VP. “It's more of an opportunity. I would look at anyone who operates a perfector today as a prospect.”

　　Web presses have benefited greatly from digital prepress. Data incorporating job parameters goes to sophisticated press control systems for presetting of everything from reels to folders and greatly speeds makeready, shortens turnaround times and facilitates the finger-printing of presses to compensate for web fan out and individual characteristics.

　　In recent years, major web press manufacturers have also incorporated such innovations as shaftless servo-motor drives, gapless or mini-gap plate cylinders, automatic plate changers, closed-loop color, register and ribbon controls and automated folders. These systems allow presses to go from job to job with very little operator intervention―an important advance from craft-based print to true manufacturing operations.

　　Quality issues a non-issue

　　“Quality is not even a question anymore,” says George Sanchez, director of web press sales and marketing at Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses. “When you are buying a high-end commercial web press ,quality is a given.” State-of-the-art web presses offer fast makereadies and quick turnaround, efficiently delivering decreasing run lengths.

　　“Over the past five years, full web makeready and turnaround times have been coming lower and lower, while still offering three times the productivity,” says Sanchez. “Today, although some jobs will always remain sheetfed due to process and substrate requirements, you have to question whether 40´´ and larger sheetfeds can actually keep up with a web press regardless of the run length.”

　　In the view of Bob Bongiorno, director of web business at Komori, “Everything today is makeready―it's not about press speeds anymore. It's how quickly you can go from one job to the other job and how little waste you are actually running on the press.”

　　“Today's web presses allow an initial makeready―paper change and ink changes―inside of an hour,” adds KBA's Kloepfer. “With four units, one web, you can take out the paper, complete folder makeready, change ink sequences, refill the ink and change plates in 40 minutes to an hour. If just changing paper―without changing ink fountains―new plates and a folder change can be done in about 30 minutes,” he says. “If only a plate change, those can be done inside of 10 minutes.”

　　KBA reports that webs remain competitive as job run lengths have come down as low as 500, and that waste is usually 1,000 impressions or less on a typical 4-color form.

　　“We have one customer who did 110 makereadies of eight-page signatures on a 4-color book in 24 hours―350,000 impressions,” says Goss's Trevett. “So those are not very long runs. When you think how long that would take you on a sheetfed press, that is huge.”

　　Web presses also compete in finishing applications with spot or double-sided UV or aqueous coatings being applied inline for high gloss or scratch resistance and are especially popular for book covers.

　　“We can offer UV coating systems on web presses that are not that much more expensive than UV coating on sheetfed because there is not much difference in hardware, it's just arranged differently,” says Komori's Bongiorno. The productivity of modern four-around and presses with web widths greater than 38´´, including many in single-web configuration, also enhances the position of web presses in the market.

　　“There are still people buying 2×4s, but the installed base of web printers with folders is migrating to bigger presses to get more pages per makeready―32, 48 or 64 pages per makeready―and they are justifying their purchases on reduction in manning and reduction in costs, less paper waste, more automation,” says KBAs Kloepfer. “For an existing web printer, it's all on overhead reduction―going from four presses to two, six presses to three or three presses to one.”

　　Two firms capitalizing on the new webs are Boyd Brothers Printing and St. Ives Inc. Boyd Brothers Printing, Panama City, FL, formerly an all-sheetfed house, expects to be printing on its first web press, a new 57´´ Goss 24-page, 2×6 Sunday 2000, later this month, as it seeks to win back market share in short-run publications. The company had the advantage of several years experience storing, running and handling lower-cost roll stock for two 8-color, 40´´ Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 perfectors equipped with digitally controlled, variable cut-off CutStar roll-to-sheet feeders.

　　“We deal with some large publishers and while we are a great source for their shorter run work, because of pricing that was better than we could do, the longer run work was going to other printers,” says Jim Boyd, Jr., president. “It's not only price that makes it more efficient to print on a web, but some of the longer run publications use lighter weight 35- to 50-lb. paper.” The new web allows Boyd to run lighter weight stock down to 35, 38.5 and 40-lb. not compatible with its sheetfed bindery.

　　Since February, St Ives has had a 16-page Komori System 38 single-web, 2×4 press operating in its Hollywood, FL plant, serving the short-run publication market.

　　“We are finding that customers are growing into the web press efficiencies much sooner than they had in the past because the technology has allowed us to produce shorter runs,” says Wayne Angstrom, chairman/CEO of St Ives U.S. division. “The new Komori allows us to go down in counts to 5,000 magazines. Our average run in this plant is well under 50,000 and we are selling more and more magazines that are in the range of 5,000 to 20,000.

　　“When you consider what you can do with a 16- or 32-page, 2×4 web press these days with automated press controls, automatic plate lock-up, closed-loop color and folders that can be dialed back into the setting of the last job, you are talking about makereadies that are only about 15 minutes and makeready waste of only 1,000,” says Angstrom. “When we get into that arena, we are competing very strongly with a lot of sheetfed printers.” Angstrom notes the Komori runs three shifts, 24/7.

　　“On a recent one-day run, we had 19 makereadies completed with an average [start-up] waste of 1,200 impressions,” he reports. “We ran 630,000 good impressions at 4.5% run waste on an average length-of-run of 33,000. A sheetfed guy would have a heck of a time keeping up with that. I think sheetfed printers are getting pushed on both ends. On the one end, the digital people are clawing away at them; and on the other end, you have this huge performance improvement from a technological viewpoint on the web presses that is beginning to push them from the other end.”

　　As far as quality, “The technology has offered us the opportunity to eliminate whatever edge may have been held by sheetfed,” he says.