WEISS-Druck started a new production era in Monschau, Germany: at the end of January, Leonard Weiss, son of Managing Director Georg Weiss, pushed the start button at the official inauguration of the company’s new 96-page LITHOMAN. The system printed a special edition of the Wochenspiegel’s magazine for future trends “Zukunft ‘xtra”. Technology leadership and the future: fitting keywords for WEISS-Druck’s philosophy: “We build on the three pillars of progress, innovation, and future – with the help of employees who identify strongly with the company,” confirmed Georg Weiss.
The LITHOMAN had already proven itself three months before with the initial startup of the press in late October 2011. What makes the 96-page LITHOMAN so coveted by printers? At first mention, a 96-page press seems like a whole new level of mass production. A web width of 2.86 m, up to 4.32 million A4 pages per hour, and printing plates measuring 3.7 square meters are all impressive facts. However, 96 pages also mean effectiveness, quality, and, above all, XXL flexibility. That was a key argument for the investment decision at WEISS-Druck in July 2010. Equipped with two folders, the 96-page LITHOMAN is designed for multiple-up production. The divisibility of the 96-page sheet in 8, 16, 24, 32, and 48 pages, in conjunction with one or two folders, results in enormous production flexibility. The complete working width of the press can be utilized for a wide variety of production purposes and products such as supplements, catalogs, or magazines, achieving extraordinary efficiency in production.
Start-up professionals
A premiere like that of the 96-page LITHOMAN is always something special. Stefan Wasserbäch, Vice President of Project Management at manroland web systems, explains: “It was new and exciting, but we weren’t venturing into completely unknown waters. When you already have 350 LITHOMAN systems operating in the market like we do, including several 80-page LITHOMAN, you can draw from a wealth of experience. Plus, we had experienced good cooperation between the WEISS-Druck and manroland teams in the past. This proved true this time as well: despite an extremely tight schedule, the teams were able to successfully master this challenge. Commissioning and the start of production were very successful. The first production runs included 2 x 48 pages and 6 x 16 pages over two folders, as well as an eight-ribbon run over a former. The LITHOMAN was successfully operating with several million cylinder revolutions in next to no time.”
Setting benchmarks à la WEISS-Druck
WEISS-Druck has set yet another new benchmark that can be perfectly
integrated into the company’s logistics concept. The attractive new hall with its brilliant blue 96-page LITHOMAN is connected to the new paper storage facility at factory II, which now supplies materials to the 80-page and 96-page LITHOMAN presses. Georg Weiss himself sees the new press as a giant in the printing market; his expectations for it are just as high. But Weiss has been able to rely on his keen sense of successful technologies and products for decades. Today, WEISS-Druck itself is a veritable giant on the German printing market. Around 1,400 employees work for WEISS-Druck at thirty company locations in Germany (prepress operations, printing companies, and publishing houses). The production sites for newspaper printing are located in Neuwiese-Bergen, Saxony, with additional sites for newspaper printing, as well as commercial and sheetfed printing, in Monschau in the Eifel region and in Limburg.