​ADDISON, IL – June 30, 2020 — RMGT is proud to announce the successful installation of the RMGT 9 Series press in early June 2020, at VISOgraphic, a leading commercial printer based in the greater Chicago, IL area. In spite of the recent economic downturn, VISOgraphic took delivery of the RMGT 9 Series 5-color press with coater and LED-UV curing technology as part of their strategic plan tuned for growth. The press was installed by Graphco, the Distributor of RMGT offset presses in the Midwest and Southeastern US.

“People have asked us why we continued on with our investment in this kind of climate,” states Robert Dahlke, Jr., Business Development, VISOgraphic. “Talking to my brother, my father and my industry peers, we believe that short-term problems in the economy or problems caused by COVID-19 should not affect our long-term strategies. Was there an opportunity for us to walk away from the install? Probably. However, we decided that now's the time to lead and not step back. I think that companies that have invested wisely in their equipment, and the ones that are customer centric, are going to see the benefit in the back half of this year. We think that investing now is going to pay dividends, not only at the end of this year, but going into 2021 and beyond.” The observations of the Dahlke’s are available on video above.

The strategic decision of the VISOgraphic management team to upgrade aging offset equipment had its genesis from feedback from their nationwide peer group. “One of the biggest things that we do is interact with a peer group,” continues Dahlke. “Our peer group came into our plant about four years ago and they said we had great machinery, but it was older and inefficient. So, we took a really hard look at the offset market and we decided that LED-UV and RMGT was the way to go. Our first investment was an RMGT 10 Series 40-inch press. Two and a half years and over 81 million impressions later, the feedback from the peer group was validated. As we've been expanding the last few years, we wanted to make our arsenal more redundant and wanted to expand capacity, so the RMGT 9 Series was the perfect choice in this environment.”

VISOgraphic continues a growing trend of commercial printers who leverage offset lithography as a cost-effective print production process for short-run static jobs. The RMGT 9 Series press fits a unique space between the 40-inch press and conventional digital printing. “The RMGT 9 Series was the perfect fit for our company because we could put 65% of our existing work from the 40-inch press and put it on the 9 Series at a cheaper cost per sheet,” comments John Dahlke, Chief Operating Officer. VISOgraphic is seeing that longer runs are printed on the RMGT 10 Series 40-inch press. However, more and more of the shorter run, non-personalized printing is transferring from digital back to offset and run more economically and with greater flexibility on the RMGT 9 Series press.

“The reason why we're moving more short-run static jobs to offset is because the efficiency of these RMGT presses is so amazing,” observes Bob Dahlke, Jr. “The LED-UV curing has the sheets ready to go from a converting and bindery perspective as soon as they're done. For VISOgraphic, we look at the offset and digital complementing each other. We are definitely not a company that says offset is here and digital is there. For us, the crossover is very close now and we marry them up very closely. At the end of the day, our offset versus digital decisions are based on client needs --- whatever will benefit them the most. The RMGT 9 Series press with LED-UV gives us more flexibility to print more jobs in the offset environment at a unique price point. Successful companies our size must have great synergies between their digital and offset presses. The 9 Series press will actually create more offset AND digital work for us.” 

LED-UV curing technology has widened the product offering for many commercial printers, allowing them to print on different substrates. “One of the great things about RMGT LED-UV and our relationship with Graphco is that it has gotten us to new products and offerings,” observes Dahlke. “We're printing things now that three years ago, there's no way we could have printed. Anywhere from static window clings, to 30 mil PVC, to all different kinds of synthetics and plastics for maps and many other uses. I was talking to my brother a couple of months ago and he said thank goodness we went with RMGT and we went LED-UV. We're getting a lot of jobs that we would not have gotten if we continued printing traditional offset with an IR dryer. It's been a game changer for new products.”

“We are particularly proud that VISOgraphic has become the first commercial shop in North America with both the RMGT 10 Series and RMGT 9 Series press,” states Derek Gordon, Graphco’s Midwest Regional Manager. “The Midwest market is very competitive for Chicago-based commercial printers, and we are proud to be aligned with VISOgraphic, who we consider a strategic partner.”

About Graphco
Graphco is the industry’s leading provider of offset, digital, and print finishing solutions. We proudly import the RMGT line of new offset printing presses featuring market-leading LED-UV curing technology, Smart Insta.Color automated make-ready, and our popular Packaging Edition presses. All RMGT presses offer best-in-class reliability and durability. The Graphco Technical Service Team stands behind every RMGT press and Graphco’s reputation for top-notch service is second to none. Since 1976, Graphco has thrived in an ever-changing market place by loyally adhering to our original model for success: Providing best-in-class print production equipment along with reliable and assured technical service. Learn more about Graphco at www.graphco.com
​
 About RMGT North America 
RMGT (RYOBI HMI Graphic Technology Ltd.), a global leader in LED-UV sheetfed offset presses, is represented by a group of three authorized sales and service centers that serve commercial printers, offset packaging converters and in-plant printers in the United States. This network constitutes the single largest offset press sales and service team in North America. As innovators of the first LED-UV printing system for sheet-fed offset printing in 2008. RMGT continues to apply their technological expertise and creativity for constant innovation, providing the printing industry with meaningful products and services while building bonds of trust and respecting diverse values. Learn more about GSNA at www.ryobimhi.com

​LANDISVILLE, PA – JUNE 17, 2020 — As part of a strategy to strengthen their hybrid print capabilities, Mt. Royal Printing Co. recently purchased an RMGT 5 Series 6-color press with coater and AQ/UV coating. Founded in 1946, Mount Royal Printing Co. is led by Gary Cayce, the third generation to take the helm of this privately-owned commercial printer. Based in Baltimore, MD this Printing Impressions Top 400 printer services the greater Washington, DC market. Mt. Royal Printing has experienced a 27% growth in the last five years, with 85% of their revenue coming from offset printing, 15% from digital and wide-format.
 
“We have driven the offset side of our business in the 40-inch market for pretty much the history of the company,” said Gary Cayce, President of Mount Royal Printing. “At the current time we have two 40-inch presses including an 8-color UV press. Our intent with this investment was to fill the void between the 40-inch market and our digital market. This will help our client base tremendously. We have a lot of small work that doesn't really fit a 40-inch competitively but requires higher quality than you can get on digital.”
 
A key element of the investment in the RMGT 5 Series press was the fact that it was outfitted with UV curing technology. Mt. Royal Printing has been running with UV curing for the past six years and has become well versed in the advantages of what UV curing brings to offset printing. “What drew us to the press was the fact that it was a full conventional UV interdeck press with five lamps,” states Tom Dieter, General Manager, Mt. Royal Printing. “This will enable us to produce a lot of specialty effects with the three interdecks(after 2nd, 4th, and 6th units) and AQ/UV coater.”

states Cayce. “If a job fits this format size, it's going to be much easier for our salesforce to sell a six-color job with reticulating varnishes and special effects. If the same job were printed on a 40-inch press, it would put a lot of customers out of their budget. With this press we can do smaller, high-end stationary packages and projects with tricky effects at a much more affordable price point.” 
 
Another factor in a more efficient print production workflow is that UV curing contributes to a faster turnaround of jobs. “We'll run 300 books on an offset press because of the turnaround time,” declares Cayce. “It's tremendously different. You would think that digital would be faster, but it's not.” He cites reduced makeready times coupled with instant drying due to UV curing as factors that tip the print manufacturing scales in favor of offset printing. By having five UV lamps placed on the RMGT 5 Series press allows Mt. Royal Printing to dry trap, which makes the quality of the printing look dramatically sharper. It will allow them to do some special effects, such as putting down opaque whites and then printing on top of them in the same pass.
 
Another example of the smaller format offset press filling a gap between a 40-inch press and a digital press is seen with high quality booklets. “It would be a pain to break down a 40-inch eight-color perfector to run a cover,” continues Dieter, “but we had to run it there because it had to match the rest of the book. So now with the RMGT 5 Series press, we have an opportunity to produce covers more economically and still match the quality of the eight color UV press.” 
 
In a hybrid print manufacturing plant, with both offset and digital presses, decisions have to be made regarding whether a job is produced offset or digital. Typically, these decisions are driven by quantity. “I mean, if it's a book block job or a job with variable data, it's going to go on digital,” states Dieter. “However, the majority of our digital work has been static, so we're looking for the higher margin work that fits offset far better. You also have to look at the costs with digital versus offset. It's not hard to figure out when you're paying a monthly digital press payment, a service contract, and then there's a click charge.”
“We share the enthusiasm of Mt. Royal Printing after investing in the RMGT series 5 press with UV curing technology, and look forward to continuing to work with Mt. Royal Printing” states Jim Lundy, G.E. Richards, the northeast importer/distributor for RMGT in the United States. “With the capabilities to run on plastic and other substrates on a smaller sheet it opens up a big window for Mt. Royal to expand their business even further.”
 
ABOUT G.E. RICHARDS
Founded in 1972, G.E. Richards Graphic Supplies has grown to 10 branches and over 70 million in sales. G.E. Richards has become the fourth largest graphic arts dealer in the country by keeping in touch with the ever-changing needs of our customers and the printing and graphic arts industries. We offer a large variety of products from printing plates, presses and ink, to film, computers, printers, scanners, imagesetters and platesetters.

About RMGT North America
RMGT (RYOBI HMI Graphic Technology Ltd.), a global leader in LED-UV sheetfed offset presses, is represented by a group of four authorized sales and service centers that serve commercial printers, offset packaging converters and in-plant printers in the United States. This network constitutes the single largest offset press sales and service team in North America. As innovators of the first LED-UV printing system for sheet-fed offset printing in 2008. RMGT continues to apply their technological expertise and creativity for constant innovation, providing the printing industry with meaningful products and services while building bonds of trust and respecting diverse values. Learn more about GSNA at www.ryobimhi.com

The RMGT 9 Series is the second RMGT press that Dynagraphics has purchased in the last 4 years.  The strong work record of their first RMGT, a 7 Series press, made the 9 Series a natural purchase.  “We had 5 service calls in 5 years on our first RMGT and we were only down for a day and a half during that whole time.  We did look at a few other brands but none of the printers we checked with could match that reliability record, so we moved ahead with another RMGT.”  ​

In spite of the current economic challenges related to the COVID-19 crisis, the offset print operation at Dynagraphics continues to be the most profitable. “We installed the press in December 2019, and we are projecting 30% growth in our print revenue. The RMGT 9 Series press gives us the highest billable rate of any machine in our building. It is the only piece of equipment that we run three full shifts. So far, it consumes enough paper that we're selling at a markup that makes it the most profitable element of our business.”

The economics of Print have meant down pressure on prices for years.  “I think you're going to have to compete knowing there's going to be constrained margins,” concludes Bowers. “You're in a far better position to compete if your equipment set is still relevant and you can print jobs easily. That's probably why we've been able to be profitable and compete in the past and lately. Every job is not a wrestling match. When you have the right technology and the right equipment, you can print much, much more effectively… and that's the big difference.”
 “Scott and the Team at Dynagraphics have what we call The Unfair Advantage,” states Chris Manley, President of Graphco. “Printers that have an RMGT 9 Series press compete daily with commercial printers running a 40” press that requires two press operators, costs 35% more to plate, costs tremendously more to maintain and requires a much higher debt service. Naturally companies like Dynagraphics can produce their work much more economically on the RMGT 9 Series press.  The Unfair Advantage is even more important today than ever and we look forward to the future success and profitability of Dynagraphics.”