​May 25, 2022 | 
​Pioneer Press, a leading commercial printer in the greater Denver, CO market will be installing an eight-color RMGT 9 Series perfecting press with LED-UV curing, this summer. Based in Greeley, CO, Pioneer Press has been in business for over 45 years, with the current ownership in place since 1999. The installation of the eight-color RMGT perfecting press will upgrade their capabilities, producing an increase in production efficiency of 300%. This will be the first LED-UV press of this size in the state of Colorado.
 
“After my father and I purchased the company in 1999, I started by working directly with and for production so I could learn all the processes we were asking our employees to perform,” states Cris SoRelle, President, Pioneer Press. “As my role in the company evolved this allowed me to realize that technological advances can significantly impact production capabilities. One of the skills I brought to the company was my understanding of analytics. I upgraded our estimating system so that we had a better understanding of our true costs. The knowledge gained from the new system allowed us to be more competitive, and we tripled our business. We have been fortunate to have a business that is very stable even during difficult economic times and we have been able to grow through these times.”
 
​Pioneer Press has been able to leverage technology to create efficiencies for its customers. “We won’t always be the first company over the wall, but we sure won’t be far behind!” states Bob Shoemate, Vice President of Operations. “As soon as a technology proves itself, we are right there, from automating pre-press, online storefronts that implement web-to-print, and even our digital printing capabilities. When it came time to buy a new press, we went with the most current and proven technology that offers the greatest rewards to both, our production team and our customers and that was clearly, the RMGT 9 Series.”

​“One of the things we analyzed in making this investment was how could we support the market in a broader manner and create a more diverse base,” states SoRelle. “What do we need this press to do to allow us to work with a broader spectrum of clients? Is it instant drying with LED-UV inks? Is it in the ability to print full-color on both sides in a single pass? Is it printing on several different materials such as plastics, boards, thin stocks, and labels? The eight-color RMGT 9 Series perfecting press with LED-UV curing capabilities addresses all these needs.”
 
“Our current clientele prints on a lot of synthetic substrates,” states Rudy Desousa, Vice President of Sales, Pioneer Press. “These sheets can take a few days to dry, and they take up a lot of room while drying. With the RMGT, the vinyl sheets are dry immediately off press. We can trim them and get them out the door, giving our customers faster turn times.”
 
“When you live in a state as beautiful as Colorado, how our processes impact the environment is always a consideration.” continues SoRelle. “We recycle a large percentage of our waste, but when we learned how LED-UV reduces our carbon footprint by using 81% less energy, that certainly got our attention. It makes sense, we all know how efficient LED light bulbs are compared to incandescent, and how long they last!” agrees Desousa. RMGT uses an LED UV system that is instant on/instant off, unlike traditional ARC curing lamps that stay on all day. It also cures at a very low temperature using minimal energy, and the ink it uses are 0% VOC (volatile organic compounds). The active color management system allows Pioneer to use far less paper to get the press, up to color” and the size chosen uses roughly 30% less raw material for plates and paper than the larger presses. “All of these things are good for our environment and our customers!” concludes SoRelle.

“Once we loaded the RMGT specs into our estimating system it was exciting to see how many jobs that we currently run on our digital presses will now default to the RMGT as the best choice,” observes Shoemate. “The RMGT is not only going to allow us to alleviate some the workload off of our digital team, it will also give our customers the highest quality print at quantities that are cost-prohibitive with traditional presses. This allows our customers to have more freedom when designing projects.”
 
“Pioneer Press has flourished during the global slowdown due to their philosophy of “Putting Personality Back in Printing,” states Kian Hemmen, Director of Sales, Print & Finishing Solutions, Western US Distributor for RMGT. “From our initial meeting with Cris and his team you can tell that this resonates within their company, in their client relationships, as well as working with them as a vendor. People buy from people. It was obvious from the onset that Pioneer Press has a way of building deep relationships that are ongoing, in addition to being a high-quality printer. There is no limit to how far their success can go. We are thrilled to partner with them in their strategic planning and celebrate their commitment to print.”​

​PLACENTIA, CA – March 9, 2022 – Primary Color LLC, a leading print provider in the horticultural market and for consumer product groups in the wine and spirits market, has recently installed a five-color RMGT 9 Series press with UV curing. Based in Dallas, TX, Primary Color LLC, merged with the Garden Marketing Group in 2014. Garden Marketing Group is an innovating producer of plant tags and horticultural manufacturing products. Since 2014, it has continued to expand the tag and label printing to include light packaging, wide and grand format printing for point of purchase displays.
 
“The horticultural tag and label market exploded for us during the COVID pandemic,” states Josh Hoffmann, President, Primary Color LLC. “All through 2020 and 2021, everyone was at home working on their yards. Our horticultural customers were shipping more plants into their distribution channels, increasing the demand for more tags. Another industry that we saw growing rapidly was packaging, and we continue to do a steady increase of folded cartons.”
 
“We print the plant tags on a polypropylene substrate,” continues Hoffmann. “Years before the supply chain issues began that has affect printers access to paper and other substrates, we began sourcing directly from Europe. Throughout 2020 and 2021 we had zero supply issues. By ordering consignments of material to meet our needs throughout the year, the recent disruption the marketplace is experiencing has not impact our production.”

​The increase in demand for more printing capacity was met with the investment in a five-color RMGT 940 offset press, with UV curing and camera system. The press was installed in the summer of 2021. “Moving from a half-sized press to the RMGT 940 has doubled our capacity,” observes Hoffmann. “We are able to print on a larger sheet which results in greater yields in our production. UV curing technology allows us to move a print job immediately into finishing since the ink is instantly cured.”
 
In addition to increasing the print capacity at Primary Color, their investment in offset printing has taken significant cost out of their business. “We have reduced our makeready by 66%,” states Hoffmann. “Before we upgraded to the RMGT 940, it required 400 to 500 sheets to get up to color and registration. Now we are doing that in about a 100 to 150 sheets. When you are purchasing sheets of material at $1 a sheet and you start reducing that cost by two-thirds, that’s a lot of dollars that go to the bottom line.”

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​CARNEYS POINT, NJ – Feb 2, 2022 – RMGT, manufacturer of the leading 8-up sheetfed offset press in North America, announces that Envision3 is the most recent printing operation in North America to install the new 8-UP+ RMGT 970 offset press. Based in the greater Chicago area in Bloomingdale, IL, Envision3 is one of the top 300 largest printing and mailing manufacturers in the country and is a full-service offset and digital printing, packaging, mailing, and finishing company. Since its inception in 2000, Envision3 has been a traditional 40” shop having installed three Mitsubishi presses in this time period. Since Mitsubishi merged with Ryobi to form RMGT, Envision3 recently expanded their offset press line with the newly introduced RMGT 970 press.
 
“We've been a Mitsubishi shop, now RMGT, for the 21 years since our formation,” states Kevin Franz, President, Envision3. “Mitsubishi and RM Machinery have won our business multiple times through the years with their new presses and great service.” Envision3 started in 2000 with a 40-inch and a 28-inch Mitsubishi offset press and later moved on to the Mitsubishi Diamond 3000 series. In the last quarter of 2021, Envision3 installed the latest addition to the 9 Series family, the RMGT 970, which features a new 25” x 38” sheet size.

​“We traditionally have been a 40-inch shop,” comments Franz. “We had three 40-inch Mitsubishi, six-color presses with coating towers. Then we were shown the RMGT 970 press. With a sheet size of 38” x 25” we realized that the 970 fit our needs. Most of the work that needed to be done fits on that sheet size or smaller. Reducing the sheet size by just two inches creates a press with a much smaller footprint that saves money in the initial acquisition cost along with reducing operating costs of labor, paper, plates and energy. I can run the RMGT 970 with just one operator.”
 
“One of the features of the RMGT 970 is ability to print up the 24-point board stock,” states Lloyd Molloy, Director of Customer Service, RM Machinery. “Running at speeds of up to 16,000 sheets per hour, the RMGT 970, with a 25” x 38” sheet size is a true 8-up press that can be run with just one press operator,” observes Molloy. “Their press has fully-automatic plate changers, and LED-UV curing capabilities in the units and in the delivery. The new RMGT 970 press also can include ASAP, Automated Smart Assist Printing.”

​RM Machinery is the authorized sales and service provider for RMGT in Canada along with all legacy Mitsubishi customers in the US.  “We are seeing a surge of interest among packaging printers and commercial printers who are upgrading their sheetfed offset press operations,” states Rahul Kaushik, CEO, RM Machinery. “It’s been eight years since the merger of Mitsubishi and Ryobi. Today RMGT has evolved into a market leader in the 8-up space with the RMGT 9 Series presses. We are thrilled to bring these solutions to the entire legacy Mitsubishi install base in the US.”

On top of a long list of printing benefits, LED-UV curing brings a host of ecological and workplace safety benefits: 50% less energy consumed than IR/Hot Air and 90% less than conventional UV.  Add to this the reduced carbon footprint, bi-monthly ink wash ups and no VOC's, upgrading your offset press to LED-UV is a no-brainer! Printing LED-UV also means you are eliminating spray powder and heat from your pressroom and LED-UV lamps are free of of mercury and add no ozone to the pressroom environment.  

From every angle, the advantages of LED-UV provide a strong ROI while also protecting Mother Earth, and her Children in the Pressroom.

​More and more printers weigh the differences between offset and digital. Offset is faster, less expensive and more versatile than digital. It can print short run jobs in minutes instead of hours, doesn't have any click charges and can print on a wider range of substrates. 

 John Dahlke breaks down the math behind the savings

​More and more Printers consider LED-UV an essential technology for their offset production. Instant Curing with no dryback, printing on any substrate and moving finished product directly to finishing, are just a few of the reasons why successful printers are adding LED-UV to their production arsenal.  Throw in ecological and financial benefits like lower electrical usage, zero VOC’s, no more powder, and a cooler pressroom, and it is a no-brainer why you need LED-UV.

For more information check out:
LED-UV Benefits: The gamechanger for forward thinking printers

Polpress is known throughout Chicago for the craftsman’s approach they take with each print job they produce. Investing in a better way to produce their demanding client’s projects has been of utmost importance to their business model. The RMGT 9-Series combines a perfect mix of technology and value allowing them to increase their business by at least 15%. 

​2020 was a year unlike any other in the history of our industry. We are proud to say that offset print is growing stronger in new ways. Not only did Printers continue to invest in the RMGT 9 Series press in 2020, but RMGT also continued to innovate with the introduction of the new RMGT 970 8-UP+ press.  

As a third-generation family owner, recently appointed CEO, Tamara Watkins Green, has embarked on major technology and automation improvements that include moving Watkins Printing into the commercial print market.  This paradigm shift is best illustrated by their investment in a state-of-the-art RMGT 9 Series offset press that is loaded with technology including RMGT’s Insta.Color makeready technology, LED-UV curing and most importantly a one and done 4 over 4 configuration. 

“Moving into the commercial print market made strategic sense for our company,” states Tamara Watkins Green. “There are many factors that come to bear in keeping a business alive and thriving for 98 years. Recently, Watkins Printing was proud to become a WBE and a certified partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). From automation improvements in our web-to-print MIS system to major enhancements in the pressroom and bindery, it’s an exciting moment in our company’s history.”

“As we approach our 100th anniversary, we are determined to build on our legacy by pursuing new market opportunities and expand our service offerings,” states William Green, President of Watkins Printing. “The 8-color RMGT 9 Series Long Perfector with LED-UV curing instantly puts us in a leadership position in the commercial print market. One-pass printing coupled with instant curing lets us go right to bindery and then on to mailing. It’s a huge game changer.”
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Due to the RMGT’s very compact footprint, incredibly user-friendly automation, low maintenance requirements and single pass printing 85% of these presses are running with a single pressman. This factor alone reduces an RMGT Printer’s annual overhead cost per shift while still maintaining an extremely high level of productivity.

“One advantage to working with The Watkins Printing Company is that we are large enough to provide full service and small enough to provide individual attention,” concludes William Green. “My wife and I deal directly with the majority of our clients. That's not something you necessarily get from a company with the breadth of our services. We know our customers personally. We enjoy that interaction and because of that, we have a lot of loyal customers.  When we decided to make this next step in our evolution, we were determined to bring in the latest technology that provided the highest quality for our extremely particular client base, so working with Graphco and RMGT made us feel very comfortable.”