How to be a successful technology leader? This company could write the book. With its new 96-page LITHOMAN, Rotooffset in Meineweh, Germany, a member of the TSB Group, has punctuated its philosophy of “The customer is king” with an exclamation point. A born leader, Rotooffset was already one of the first companies worldwide to print on a 80-page LITHOMAN press.
“We can now produce jobs that used to be impossible. Plus, the production windows for print jobs are always getting tighter and with this new technology,
we can be even faster and more efficient,” says Markus Permesang, Technical Director at Rotooffset, summarizing the advantages of the new 96-page LITHOMAN press.
96 pages to customer satisfaction
The 96-page LITHOMAN is a gleaming white beacon of innovation in the production hall at Rotooffset; two 32-page rotary presses were phased out for its arrival. Rotooffset decided on the investment in late 2010; the start button was activated on November 2, 2011, in Meineweh, right on schedule. Markus Permesang is very pleased with manroland’s service as well as the first months of production: “The 96-page LITHOMAN fortifies our supplement business; its production capacity and efficiency are absolutely outstanding.
This gives us the flexibility to produce a wide variety of printed products, from 6 x 16, 5 x 24, or 2 x 48 pages. Now it’s time to pass on these advantages to our customers.”
The new 96-page dimension
The 96-page LITHOMAN is equipped with a reel splicer, four double printing couples, a dryer, and two folders. With a web width of 2.86 m, the system will mainly be used at Rotooffset for retail advertising supplements. Counting the dryer, which measures 18 meters, the new production line has a total length of 50 meters: a veritable giant, and the biggest LITHOMAN ever. Weighing in at around 500 tons, it still manages to be wiry and well-proportioned, with the agility of a discus thrower. Its incredible high-speed power is converted into volumes of up to 4.32 million high-quality printed A4 pages per hour, all with utmost flexibility.
The impression cylinders, though made using the latest materials and machining technologies, still embody power and strength, and can easily handle the demands of daily 24-hour production. Their new lightness simultaneously fulfills contemporary ergonomic requirements. While Rotooffset promotes staff development for its employees, not everyone wants to become a ladder climber. manroland is well aware of that fact and has developed resourceful servicing solutions. Safe, ergonomic equipment facilitates maintenance and the exchange of rollers or wash-up bars. Even to the most casual observer, watching the large, thin printing plates (2,870 x 1,246 millimeters) glide along their mounts to the printing units for an automatic exchange, it is perfectly clear that this is a well-conceived, employee-friendly workflow; there are no kinks, and the operator has everything under control.
High-level expertise for high-volume printing
Rotooffset is a member of the TSB Group with its headquarters in Mönchengladbach and locations in Oberschleißheim near Munich and Meineweh near Leipzig in Germany, as well as in the Italian town of Alba. TSB is a print service provider specialized in high-volume printing. Its primary customers are publishing houses, as well as mail order and retail companies. TSB belongs to the Bagel Group, a family-owned company founded in 1801 and the current employer of 1,600 employees. Approximately 120 employees work in Meineweh.