PASADENA, CA — March 16, 2018 — House of Printing is a family business, currently under the third generation of ownership. It began in 1942, and while it has seen some changes over the years, it has continued to be a shop that serves a variety of markets, with today’s equipment including both offset and digital presses, and a wide range of finishing options. However, both of their offset presses were aging — both were used when they purchased them, with the two-color purchased in 1985, and the four-color purchased in 1991. It was time for an upgrade.

“They were older technology,” said Andrew Pittroff, Vice President of Operations. “They were still in good condition, but they were slow, and makeready was especially slow. We could only get away with doing 2-3 jobs a day just because makeready took a long time. Hanging plates was close to an hour alone.”

The difference, he noted, is night and day. For example, he said, they had one morning where they had done five sets of plates already, and it wasn’t even noon yet. It’s a different world as far as that’s concerned,” Pittroff said. But it goes beyond faster makereadies, “Automation and color management is much easier,” he pointed out, "and we are also now able to get bigger runs. Where before we were limited by the slower machine and the smaller 4 up format, we are now able to run 8 up — so we can do twice as much on the sheet, and the press will run 50% faster.”

And that added speed and capacity have already paid off. In the few months House of Printing has had the RMGT 9 Series running, they are already doing jobs that previously they would not have been able to handle at all, said Pittroff. “One of our clients is a greeting card company, with probably 200 designs, we have been doing the foil stamping for their line for years, but they were doing the printing on an HP Indigo at another shop. Their quantities are high enough and the RMGT is efficient enough for us to now move the printing over to offset."

Pittroff went on to note that with the RMGT 9 Series press, as long as the runs are at least 250 sheets, which is around 4,000 cards, they are more cost effective for the customer, and more efficient for the shop to produce on offset. “The thing is on the digital press you are paying a click charge, and every sheet you’re getting a cost. On offset, you do have plates and a little more makeready, but once you get the plates hung — which is literally 3 minutes or less — and with faster makeready, we’re ready in less than 100 sheets. So it just opens the door to do shorter runs. You still have the costs of the plates, but everything else is faster.”

“We were overdue for some new equipment,” said Pittroff. “We had never been able to get a 40-inch press before because this is a smaller building and we had some electrical issues — it would have cost a lot to pull in bigger electrical capacity necessary for that size of press. But that’s the beauty of this press — we get the capacity without the hassle.”

“We talk to a lot of print shops like House of Printing, where they have older equipment that is still running, and they are hesitant to upgrade for a variety of reasons,” said Kian Hemmen, Director of Sales, Print & Finishing Solutions, a member of the Graphic Systems North America (GSNA) dealer alliance. “But House of Printing is very clearly illustrating why it is absolutely worth it for those shops who haven’t considered new equipment in a while. The added speed, capabilities and variety of jobs they can now produce is staggering. It will be exciting to see where they go next now that they have the equipment in place to allow them to reach for those new heights.”
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About RMGT 
RMGT is represented in the US and Canada by a group of six authorized sales and service centers that serve commercial printers, offset packaging converters and in-plant printers in North America. This network constitutes the single largest offset press sales and service team in North America. In 2008, RMGT introduced the first LED-UV printing system for sheet-fed offset printing. Today, RMGT continues to apply their technological expertise and creativity for constant innovation, providing the printing industry with meaningful products and services. Learn more about RMGT at www.ryobimhi.com
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SOLON, OH — March 1, 2018 — In the few months since VISOgraphic installed their RMGT 10 Series press, Bob Dahlke and his son, Bob Dahlke Jr. have already run over 8 million impressions on the press, and they are just getting started. They made the decision to invest in the press when it became clear the shop needed their offset litho operations to be as efficient and modern as their newer digital presses, and RMGT hit the sweet spot all around.

“This was just the best fit from a pricing and service standpoint for our business,” said Dahlke. “LED-UV was important to us as well — it is instant curing, more environmentally friendly, has increased throughput, and less VOCs. We liked forming a partnership with Graphco as well. It is an important investment for both our clients and employees as we expand into new markets.”

On three old presses combined, noted Dahlke, they could only push an average of 8,000 impressions per hour. On the single RMGT 10 Series press, they can do as many as 16,000 impressions per hour, doubling their productivity in a much smaller footprint. And they have already begun to bring some spot UV work in-house that they previously had to send to other shops as well. “This is really going to benefit our operations,” said Dahlke Jr. “And it will only continue to improve as we really learn the machine. We are still in the learning curve phase with this press, and on the cusp of what it can really do. We are excited and enthusiastic about the potential.”

“I have been very surprised how fast we have been able to migrate from our conventional 40” press environment,” states John Dahlke. “We jumped from two older presses with no automation, to a completely new press manufacturer in RMGT. Heavy ink coverage jobs and substrates sensitive to offsetting now run at rated speeds without issues thanks to LED-UV curing. In the past, our make-readies also took much longer – this is not the case anymore. It’s also great not to “fight” jobs on press anymore – you dial it in and the press simply runs and runs. Between the efficiencies of the RMGT and the instant LED-UV curing Baldwin system, some of our most problematic jobs have become hang and bang jobs.”

The shop has also invested heavily in digital equipment, and does a large amount of hybrid work, with shells printed offset on the RMGT 10 Series press, then going through the digital presses for personalization. LED-UV curing technology makes this type of operation much more streamlined. Since the offset press does not use spray powder, offset printed sheets can go directly to the digital press without excess powder clogging the digital presses. LED-UV curing technology not only enables a seamless hybrid print workflow between offset and digital, it also allows VISOgraphic to send printed sheets direct to the bindery without any delays or waiting, speeding up processing across the board.

“One of the big advantages with LED-UV is the accelerated throughput through our plant,” noted Dahlke. “With immediate LED-UV curing, once off press, press sheets can go right to our bindery for conversion.  Even uncoated jobs that normally had to sit overnight to dry can now be immediately worked on --- with no fear of marking or offset. We have not had to rerun one job due to scuffing, offsetting or picking since installing the RMGT 10 Series with LED-UV curing system.”

Dahlke did note that the UV inks are more expensive than what they were using before, but, he said, the savings they are seeing from the increased efficiency and productivity are more than making up the difference. “As more people install these presses, the price on the inks will continue to go down,” noted Dahlke Jr. “That ship is turning, and more people are starting to figure out that LED-UV is the next generation of litho printing. It is really starting to take hold.”
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“The entire Graphco team (the exclusive RMGT distributor for the Midwest USA) is incredibly pleased that VISOgraphic continues to be happy with this investment,” said Chris Manley, President. “We believed the RMGT 10 Series would be a turning point for the shop, and it is gratifying to see that playing out in real time. We look forward to continuing this partnership with them for many years to come.”
 
About RMGT
RMGT is represented in the US and Canada by a group of six authorized sales and service centers that serve commercial printers, offset packaging converters and in-plant printers in North America. This network constitutes the single largest offset press sales and service team in North America. In 2008, RMGT introduced the first LED-UV printing system for sheet-fed offset printing. Today, RMGT continues to apply their technological expertise and creativity for constant innovation, providing the printing industry with meaningful products and services. Learn more about RMGT at www.ryobimhi.com