Manroland piles into small format

--> Manroland has produced the biggest surprise of drupa so far, with the announcement that it is entering the small format press market with the launch of its Roland 50, a 36x52cm press.

The company also used its press conference, held as usual the day before the show opens, to present the results of its new rebranding exercise to the world's press. The company will now be known by just one word, manroland, and has stated its core branding is based on the values of reliability, determination, groundbreaking and inspirational.

Gerd Finkbeiner gave an impassioned presentation, not only on his company but on the importance of drupa as a showcase for print, and a confidence booster for an industry facing a few challenges, about which he was sanguine. He says, "Despite the challenges and structural changes in the world we all face these next two weeks will highlight the industry's ability to innovate and to meet the needs of the changing world environment."

The change in company branding was part of the contract of sale when Allianz Capital bought 65 per cent of the business from MAN two years ago. Finkbeiner said the intended IPO is still very much on the agenda, and will take place when market conditions allow.

The new Roland 50 is the company's first press in the small format press. It incorporates technology drawn from the bigger presses such as double sized impression cylinders, transferter. The driving factor for Roland to get into the small format sector is that it believes not being there puts it at a disadvantage against Heidelberg and Komori in particular, particularly when those small format printers look to move into the 74cm format class. Head of sheetfed sales Dr Markus Rall says that although that sector is under pressure from digital presses it is still a vary large market, and one that Roland should be in.

Rall went on to announce a raft of sheetfed press developments. These included a new inline coater for the Roland 200, as well as integrated dryers and high pile delivery. The Roland 500 will now be available with an inline foiler, aimed at allowing printers to target work in labels, commercial and packaging print. The 500 is also now available in OBplus size, 590x740mm. The company's flagship Roland 700 is being shown in both HiPrint and Direct Drive versions. Hall says the 700 Direct Drive is unbeatable for productivity when iot comes to less than 5000 sheet jobs or ten jobs a shift, claiming a 60 per cent reduction in mekready.

The Roland XXL series press is being shown in 7B plus format, with a sheet size of 1260x1620mm, enabling 20 per cent more DIN A4 pages, printing 48 instead of 40. The drupa press contains two firsts, the first being APL auto plate loading and the second Roland's Inline Colour Pilot for inline ink density measurement and monitoring.

Manroland has just sold what it says is the world's first Size 8 XXL perfector, a Roland 900 XXL with sheet size of 1300x1850mm, to a company in its home town of Augsburg.

The company believes that its development of its sheetfed series will keep it in its current number two position in the global sheetfed market. When it comes to the web site Roland is the clear market leader, and while it isn't planning on showing a full web press at drupa it does have plenty on display, and plenty of innovation.

Paul Steidle, head of web division at Manroland said the company had ten pieces of web hardware on display. He raised the question of the 96pp web press, and said it was something the company was working towards, in fact a 96pp unit is on the stand although only available to view by selected visitors, but the issues were not only about press engineering, but also on reel handling and the like. Steidle said Manroland has just signed an order for its first 96pp press, a Lithoman short grain machine, which will be delivered at the end of next year. Steidle said his company's web presses were developing high speeds thanks to the folder technology, which is now allowing speeds of up to 3400 feet a minute, or 17 metres a second. Steidle also pointed out the new Dynachange feature on the world's best selling 16pp web, the Rotoman., which allows on the fly plate changing.

When it comes to newspaper presses Steidle highlighted his company's commitment to virtually custom built machines, Manroland is now providing presses in virtually every possible combination.. Of the 300hybrid presses sold around the world some 158 of them have the Roland badge on, highlighting the company's dominance of the market.

At its press conference Manroland also highlighted its commitment to the environment, especially through its new EcoLogic umbrella programme.

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