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New 8-UP+ RMGT 970 Offset Press Debuts at Well Attended Factory Open House

9/23/2020

PLACENTIA, CA – September 24, 2020 — RMGT, manufacturer of the leading 8-up sheetfed offset press in North America, officially launched their latest member to the 9 Series family, the RMGT 970 offset press, at an Open House in Fukuyama, Japan. The Open House event, celebrated on August 25-28, 2020 introduced three new models of presses: the RMGT 970 Perfecting press (up to 10 colors), the RMGT 970 straight press (up to 8 colors), and the RMGT 1050 Perfecting press (up to 10 colors). This was the first opportunity to safely roll out all three presses in the COVID-19 era. Open House events featuring the RMGT 970 running live will be presented at demonstration facilities in North America in the early part of 2021.
“We developed the new RMGT 970, incorporating our strengths and technologies for release at drupa 2020,” states Katsushi Hirokawa, President, RMGT. “The RMGT 970 can accommodate a 25 x 38-inch sheet, is excellent in cost performance, automation, and environmental friendliness.” The 970 is the newest member to the RMGT 9 Series family of presses that boasts over 80 new installations in North America since 2014. A review of the new features of the RMGT 970 is available as a trailer video and can be viewed at: https://bit.ly/RMGT970

“While widely recognized as having a great advantage in longer press runs, a key feature of the Open House was to demonstrate the advantage of offset printing over digital in short-run print jobs,” observes Chris Manley, President of Graphco, Distributor for RMGT in the Midwest and Southeast. Using a series of unique, consecutive print jobs, the RMGT 970 perfecting press demonstrated a complete makeready, printing 500 color accurate 8-up sheets completely dried and ready to move to bindery, using just one press operator, in under 6 minutes. This economy in offset print manufacturing is enabled by recent technologies brought to market by RMGT.

New 8-UP+ Sheet Size: 25" x 38”

RMGT was the first press manufacturer to recognize that the industry needed a bridge between smaller, slower and expensive to run digital devices and so-called full-size presses that seldom ran a full 40” sheet. RMGT effectively invented the 8-UP market and the 9 Series press to help RMGT users profitably produce commercial applications like direct mail, 16-page signatures, and short-run packaging (the 3 largest segments of the print market). The new 8-UP+ RMGT 970 will now produce jobs like 9” x 12” booklets, and many other applications, on the same size sheet that a 40” press would run. “The original 9 Series created a highly profitable niche in the market with our 25” x 36” sheet size and new 970’s 25” x 38” size now means that sourcing cover weight stocks and running covers will be that much easier. Our customers asked for the 8-UP+ size and the RMGT factory said yes,” states Kian Hemmen, Director of Sales for Print & Finishing Solutions, the RMGT distributor for the western United States.

ASAP (Automated Smart Assist Printing) System

The ASAP (Automated Smart Assist Printing) system allows pressmen to enjoy an entirely new level of automation and autonomous press operation in the 8-UP press format. During the live demonstrations a series of short-run jobs were put in sequence using ASAP. With ASAP, the pressman touches one button and the entire printing process—from ink and paper presetting, blanket and impression cleaning, and plate changing through verification of test printing, register adjustment, ink density adjustment, and full sheet inspection are all autonomously processed without even pulling a sheet. As ASAP releases the job into production the 970 perfecting press runs at 15,000 4/4 or 5/5 sheets per hour. Any variance from the specified QC standard is flagged by ASAP to insure only compliant sheets are sold to the end user.

Single Pressman Operation

The ability to staff a highly automated RMGT 8-UP+ press with a single pressman was important for profitability and flexibility prior to March of 2020. However, as the printing industry recovers from the economic results of COVID-19, reducing per shift staffing costs will bring greater viability to pressrooms who take the 9 Series approach to manufacturing. Even before the release of ASAP, over 80% of RMGT 9 Series presses running in North America are manned with a single pressman. Depending on the local labor market and how many shifts an RMGT 9 Series printing company runs per week, the savings from the single pressman approach ranges from $45,000 to $180,000 annually.

LED-UV Curing

RMGT was the first sheetfed offset press manufacturer to commercially develop LED-UV curing technology, releasing this at drupa in 2008. LED-UV lamps dry printed sheets instantly, offering impressive energy savings over other curing technologies. An added benefit in the print and finishing workflow is that LED-UV curing eliminates the need for powder. This powderless press environment allows offset printed sheets to move to either to a digital overprint scenario or directly to finishing without impacting the performance of these devices.

“RMGT’s launch of the new 970 is a key step forward in our continuing leadership of the 8-UP market,” states Kian Hemmen. “Equipping the RMGT 970 with our new ASAP technology and expanding into a 25" x 38” press sheet makes the value proposition of the RMGT 9 Series even more impressive. Single pressman operation is inherent to the 9 Series which is why we say that we’ve been practicing ‘social distancing’ since 2014. The decision to launch is a welcomed step and we can’t wait to see the RMGT 970 landing stateside.”

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 and Canada. 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 RMGT North America at www.ryobimhi.com

Advertisers Printing Installs 10-Color RMGT 9 Series Perfecting Press With LED-UV Curing

9/9/2020

ST. LOUIS, MO – SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 — For over 97 years, Advertisers Printing has evolved as a leading commercial printer in the Midwest. Founded by Claude Fechner, the current fourth-generation Fechner management team continues a tradition of innovation by announcing the installation of a fully automated 10-color RMGT 9 Series perfecting press with LED-UV curing technology. The investment in this offset press is in line with their company philosophy of “Conscious Capitalism” and whose on-going sustainability practices are certified by SGP.

“Conscious Capitalism shapes the way we treat each and every customer,” states William Fechner, President, Advertisers Printing. “As part of our core philosophy, our ultimate goal is to enrich the lives of everyone connected with us, clients, employees, suppliers, shareholders and the community. It may not be conventional capitalism, or even business as usual, but we strongly feel it should be.” The economic impact of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic can challenge core principles as they relate to investment.

“A lot of customers have asked us why we're investing in this new press now,” states Alex Fechner, Business Development, and fourth-generation member at Advertisers Printing. “True to our core, Advertisers has always been passionate about going above and beyond for our customers. Second, we don't have a company without our team members. We want to do everything we can to make sure that we have a future for all our team members and their families. A third reason is the environmental angle. Investing in the 10-color RMGT 9 Series perfecting press improves our print quality and speed to market with products that offer the lowest carbon footprint.”

The acquisition of the 10-color RMGT 9 Series perfecting press allows Advertisers to eliminate three offset presses while increasing capacity at the same time. “Our equipment mix in the past has not been one-size-fits-all,” continues William Fechner, “It’s been smaller projects go on the smaller press, medium sized projects on the medium sized press, full size projects on the full size press. The RMGT allows us to cover all of that with one super automated, quick machine. We've been able to eliminate quarter-sized machines, half-sized machines, and three-quarter sized machines with this one press. It's a beautiful thing.”

Offset vs. Digital

Advertisers Printing follows a national trend in using a hybrid mix of offset and digital print production, with approximately 65% of their revenue still generated by offset print and 35% by digital print. Advertisers recently invested in their digital pressroom by adding a larger format HP 10000 digital press. “What the RMGT does is help to fill the capacity throughout our shop, including our digital area,” observes Alex Fechner. “This has been a really good synergistic situation. Because the 10-color RMGT 9 Series press is equipped with LED-UV curing technology, we have more flexibility to print shells LED offset and then run those shells on our HP 10000 to handle large variable data runs.”

Perfecting Press

The investment in digital machines coincides with the urgency of how quickly print work needs to be turned around in today’s print market. “Everyone always wants to hear about the printing jargon,” states William Fechner. “To put this in the simplest of terms, on our older presses, we had to print one side of a smaller sheet in one pass and then flip it over and print the other side of the sheet in another pass. With our 10-color RMGT 9 Series perfecting press, we can print a larger sheet five over five colors in one pass. Then, when you add the LED-UV curing, the sheet is instantly dry, ready to finish. This translates to more than doubling our capacity on the pressroom floor.” The new 920PF-10+CC is equipped to produce 5/5 plus in line coating and features Insta.Color makeready automation and fully automated plate-changing. This automation package plus the very compact press footprint allows Advertisers to efficiently operate their new press using one pressman.

LED-UV Curing

“We are an SGP certified company,” continues William Fechner. “One of only about 50 in the world, as far as sheetfed offset and digital printers are concerned. The RMGT 9 Series is right in the wheelhouse of being environmentally friendly. Due to LED-UV curing, it has much lower energy usage. It's really ‘green’, with no VOCs. This better supports the health of our team and, as a result, the future of this company. Additionally, LED curing is so much faster in processing the product, helping us to serve our clients better.”

Advertisers invested in the latest GEW LeoLED-UV MLA (Modular Lamp Array) curing technology so they enjoy the ultimate in curing capabilities, flexibility and gloss level.  Through a process known as “dry-trapping”, high gloss coating projects will enjoy a 10-15% higher gloss level than projects using the “wet-trap” process.  When processing special projects like chemical emboss finishes, static clings and plastics the abundance of LeoLED-UV curing modules means

“In recent years, Advertisers has been competing by using our variety of smaller presses,” concludes Fechner. “In a way, we’ve been showing up to a gunfight with a knife. That put us at an unfair disadvantage, but we’ve still done well. Now with the addition of the 10-color RMGT 9 Series perfecting press, we've got the unfair advantage. We're feeling confident that we're going to be very competitive in some of these larger projects and be able to deliver faster, with higher quality, and in a shorter time. We don't have a knife anymore… Now we've got a cruise missile.”

“We are very proud to work with Bill, Alex and the Advertisers Printing Team on this exciting next step in their impressive 97-year history.” states Chris Manley, President, Graphco, Distributor for RMGT in the Midwest and Southeast.  “It’s a true honor to partner with such a great family business and for our industry a 10-color configuration is a very special press.  As our industry continues to rebound from the low point of the V we are so proud to be aligned with a rugged company like Advertisers Printing.”

“It’s been our position since 2014 that an investment in RMGT technology dramatically improves the profitability of our customer’s offset and digital revenue stream.” continues Manley, “When we impact 65-75% of a company’s turnover the whipsaw in profit is much greater than other investments.  Much better profitability from offset is extremely important, and reverse cannibalizing digital to improve margins helps immensely as well. We can hardly wait to see the benefit that Advertisers Printing will enjoy through this powerful investment.”

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 four authorized sales and service centers that serve commercial printers, offset packaging converters and in-plant printers in the United States and Canada. 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 RMGT North America at www.ryobimhi.com

New 8-UP+ RMGT 970 Offset Press Debuts at Well Attended Factory Open House

New 8-UP+ Sheet Size: 25" x 38”

ASAP (Automated Smart Assist Printing) System

Single Pressman Operation

LED-UV Curing

Advertisers Printing Installs 10-Color RMGT 9 Series Perfecting Press With LED-UV Curing

Offset vs. Digital

Perfecting Press

LED-UV Curing

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New 8-UP+ RMGT 970 Offset Press Debuts at Well Attended Factory Open House

​New 8-UP+ Sheet Size: 25" x 38”

ASAP (Automated Smart Assist Printing) System ​

Single Pressman Operation

LED-UV Curing

Advertisers Printing Installs 10-Color RMGT 9 Series Perfecting Press With LED-UV Curing

Offset vs. Digital

Perfecting Press

LED-UV Curing

Categories

Archives

Follow

New 8-UP+ Sheet Size: 25" x 38”

ASAP (Automated Smart Assist Printing) System