Competitive Edge with MAN Roland XXL Fleet
Himmer Druck produces books and magazines with ROLAND 900 in XXL format 8
Himmer Druck uses MAN Roland's ROLAND 900 in XXL format 8 for printing books and magazines. The Augsburg printing company operates with a complete XXL production line including appropriate prepress and postpress.
Pioneers of large-format offset printing
Himmer is one of the pioneers in large-format sheetfed offset printing: the company works with a four-colour ROLAND 900 in XXL format 7 (max. sheet size 1120 x 1620 mm), a four-colour ROLAND 900 in XXL format 8 (max. sheet size 1300 x 1850 mm), a two-colour ROLAND 700 perfector (max. sheet size 740 x 1040 mm) and a five-colour ROLAND 700, also a perfector. The latter has hybrid equipment for inline enhancement of covers and jackets.
Since summer 2005 a five-colour ROLAND 900 in XXL format 8 is to make the proud fleet even bigger. Himmer does not at all belong to those printing companies that have been affected by the economic slump of recent years. The home market permanently provides the Augsburg large-format printer with well-filled order books, because machinery like Himmer's is rather the exception in Germany.
Offset printing for the past 50 years
Founded by Johann Peter Himmer in 1842 in Augsburg as a book printing and publishing business, the company by now has a long offset printing tradition as well. For as early as in the nineteen-fifties the J. P. Himmer GmbH & Co. KG played a pioneering role in offset, being one of the first companies after the war to buy from MAN in Augsburg an offset press of the new-generation type "Ultra".
Today, Hannes Eisele as the partner who bought the company in 1988 is responsible for the company together with Marcus Fischer as managing partner. The plant now occupies a new building in the Lechhausen industrial area in the city's northeast.
XXL throughout
The ROLAND 900 in XXL format 8 has so far been known almost only in connection with poster printing. The fact that this is not the only application by far is being proved by the 80-staff company in the capital of the Bavarian administrative district of Swabia: Himmer prints mainly books and numerous other publications on its two large-format presses. "And we are proud to say that we are one of the first printing companies to have installed an XXL line from prepress right through to postpress", reports manager Marcus Fischer. The papermakers are well prepared by now to serve the large-format market - one of expected high growth potential - and are supplying the suitable sheet product for format 8. Appropriate systems are also offered by the leading manufacturers of computer-to-plate imaging and folding equipment.
The extended large format 8
The ROLAND 900 in XXL format 8 as a very highly automated large-format pressline makes for new possibilities in bookwork, and in catalogue and magazine production as well. For example: 64 pages in final size of A4 can be produced on one press sheet, and, says Marcus Fischer, "for the first time we can also fold and convert the printed sheets in full format". With best utilization of the sheet, format 8 even allows producing 72 pages at twice 36 pages. Alternatively, the press sheet can be centre-slit in the press using an "inline slitter" so that the 2 x 32 pages can be immediately converted.
The more pages fit on a plate, the fewer the plates required, of course. In converting, a 64-page production offers the advantage that the printed sheets can be directly processed in format 8, meaning fewer worksteps. In addition, fewer stations are required in the gang stitcher. "That counts in the long run", says Hannes Eisele.