ROLAND 700 DirectDrive: A Strong System For Small Print Runs
Over a year and a half of field test production and half a year since series presses were delivered to our first customers: the ROLAND 700 DirectDrive fulfills all the high expectations. What are its advantages, how can you best use its high potential for efficiency? Our first users report on their experiences.
Millions of wrappers and luxury folding cartons from Eindhoven are sent out all over the world
High quality cigars are set apart as a luxury product by their exquisite wrappers. With many cigars, it is highly likely that these wrappers come from the Netherlands – specifically from the Drukkerij Vrijdag b. v. in Eindhoven. It is even more likely that they were printed on the new ROLAND 700 DirectDrive, as just one of approximately 200 million cigar wrappers produced here annually, a large part of which are intended for export.
Refined labels for luxury flip boxes are just another important pillar in the product range at this Dutch printing company with 115 employees. Additionally there are folding cartons for tobacco products and cosmetics, millions of which leave the plant in Eindhoven every year.
Vrijdag combines printing and complex refinement. Their competence in stamping, embossing, bronzing, and offline varnishing is an important factor for maintaining a top market position. Mathieu Siemons, Operations Manager at the Drukkerij Vrijdag, explains: “We do not supply half-finished products, but exquisite wrappers, fully refined luxury packaging and labels. This is our added value for customers.”
But the high output of “small” products does not necessarily mean large print runs, as customers have increasingly sophisticated needs: extremely small runs of special labels using only 1000 sheets are not rare. However, the range for this can also go up to 15,000 sheets. With wrappers, which use 5,000 to 25,000 sheets, the situation is not much different. Last but not least, lot sizes of 10,000 to 150,000 sheets of wet-adhesive labels are also produced, primarily for the Dutch beverage industry.
Two six-color ROLAND 700 systems with coating modules are available as the main production machines in the preferred 3B format (74 x 104 cm). They process 70 g/m² printing material for labels and 90 g/m² or 100 g/m² paper for wrappers. The range also includes 550 g/m² cardboard for flip boxes made of solid board.
The DirectDrive field test press is one of these six-color systems. Mathieu Siemons explains their investment decision, “After analyzing our orders, print runs, and offers from competitors, we were fully convinced that the DirectDrive machine was right for us.” The field test was set out for one year and was very successful. On average over the field test year, Mathieu Siemons had almost 90 percent machine availability, an extremely persuasive value for this customer. “It all went much better than promised. There were also never any great difficulties that would have prevented production of a job.” The replaced five-color press was supposed to remain on call for another year as a back-up. It was, however, only put into operation once during the first three months and then sold off.
As a result, the printing company was able to fully profit from the advantages of the DirectDrive right from the start and this has continued to be the case for a year and a half now. All in all, they have had 25 percent savings in setup times compared to the older ROLAND 700 presses with an identical configuration. Depending on the order, these savings may also be even higher thanks to parallel plate change and washing, as well as an optimized workflow in the printnet network. A well-qualified printer and a competent assistant are the standard operation team, as short setup times would not be possible mainly due to frequent color changes. After all, parallel setup processes also require well coordinated parallel work processes for the operators.
Götz, Ludwigsburg: the smaller the print run, the greater the advantages
Thomas Götz, with his brother Ulrich Managing Partner of Druckhaus Götz GmbH in Ludwigsburg, would not like to do without his ROLAND 700 DirectDrive. The counter already showed 18 million print jobs after just ten months. Since commissioning, it has been almost constantly available – and this as just a field test press for a new press generation. The best part: over a comparable period, it has printed 35 percent more in two-shift operation than its predecessor, which was also a five-color ROLAND 700. This is only possible thanks to DirectDrive.
The large formats 6 and 7B actually dominate in the 13 printing units at Götz. The main focus of production is on medical and scientific reference books, as well as schoolbooks for large German publishers. Everything that will not work efficiently in large format is done on the medium-size press. These include rests of sheets or posters and parts of displays that sometimes start from low-volume printwork of 20 and up. Thanks to its coating module, the ROLAND 700 DirectDrive is now a specialist for refined book covers. The average for this type of production is 4000 sheets per job and approximately ten jobs a day.
Thomas Götz is very satisfied: “The smaller the order, the better the advantages of the ROLAND 700 DirectDrive." Approximately 35 percent of setup and auxiliary times have been done away with through parallel setup times and the high degree of press automation. These are not just a few minutes a day, but hours that can be ultimately saved. Like Mathieu Siemons from Vrijdag, Thomas Götz also emphasizes the necessity of well-qualified personnel. “If an additional assistant can save ten minutes on each machine, it is worth hiring him.”
