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The following is a movie that reports on the latest information of RMGT booth at drupa 2016.

https://youtu.be/PxMe11ZR4QQ

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The RMGT booth demonstrated the three models exhibited: the RMGT 10 1,050 mm format offset press and RMGT 9 A1-size offset press, both with LED-UV curing units, and the RMGT DP7 B2-size liquid toner type digital offset press.

Based on the key concepts “heavy stock package printing capability,” “easier operation,” “consistent high printing quality” and “eco-friendly,” demonstrations highlighted RMGT’s new technologies for meeting today’s market needs for everything from commercial printing to heavy stock package printing, generating considerable interest from the many visitors.

A display corner introduced RMGT’s corporate profile using video and presentation panels, and displayed samples of high-value-added work printed by actual customers using RMGT presses. Another corner presented RMGT’s lineup of LED-UV presses, the LED-UV development history, case studies of customers who purchased RMGT LED-UV presses, samples of LED-UV printing, and some of the inks, varnishes and other materials used for LED-UV printing, emphasizing RMGT’s role as a pioneer in LED-UV printing technology.

Demonstration of the RMGT 10 (1050LX-6 + LED-UV + CC)

Demonstrations of the RMGT 9 (920PF-8 + LED-UV)

Demonstrations of the RMGT DP7 (DP790)

Display Corner

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By Patrick Henry
Published: May 26, 2016

San-Bon Jime at Metzgers: a Japanese hand-clapping celebration and good luck salute for important business events. From left: Kian Hemmen, Ryobi MHI Graphic Technology Ltd. (RMGT); Kozac Takata, RMGT; Tom Metzger, Metzgers; Yuzuru Ichimasa, RMGT; and Chris Manley, Graphic Systems North America (GSNA).

The Japanese press manufacturer known as RMGT occupies a potentially rewarding place in the graphic equipment market. At first glance, though, the position it’s in might look more like a predicament than an opportunity.

RMGT sells mostly sheetfed offset equipment, a category with its best years of market performance behind it. The biggest chunks of the North American sheetfed market belong to two well entrenched German rivals. And then there’s the challenge of selling equipment in this flat environment under a relatively new brand name (even though the companies that combined to form RMGT were well known and highly regarded).

But, RMGT believes that it has a great deal going for it even in these challenging circumstances and that printers, once they get to know the brand a bit better, will be inclined to agree. The confidence comes from three things: competitive pricing and the promise of a lower cost of press ownership; a claimed technical lead over other manufacturers in LED UV, an advanced drying technology; and a belief in a deferred but now emerging demand for versatile, reliable, and affordable offset equipment.

To share this three-part message with their North American customers, top executives of RMGT traveled from Hiroshima, Japan to Toledo, Ohio for a pre-drupa review of what the company will showcase at the international event. Hosting the May 10 briefing for RMGT in Toledo was Metzgers, a customer that has helped the manufacturer plant its flag in the North American market by installing the largest and most extensively equipped version of RMGT’s eight-page offset press.

RMGT (Ryobi MHI Graphic Technology Ltd.) is the two-and-a-half-year-old product of a joint venture between two of Japan’s most reputable press makers: Ryobi Ltd., best known for B3- and B2-format sheetfed presses; and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Printing & Packaging Machinery, Ltd., primarily a player in the full-size sheetfed market. Acknowledging the general decline of sheetfed sales, the two manufacturers integrated operations to take mutual advantage of their respective strengths in offset technology.

The arrangement became official in January 2014. Today, said Yuzuru Ichimasa, president of RMGT, “profit is very solid,” and sales in North America are strong: three times greater in the venture’s second year than what they were in the first. In the last 12 months, he said, RMGT has sold more than 30 presses comprising more than 150 printing units in the U.S. and Canada.

Responsible for many of the placements is Graphic Systems North America (GSNA), a network of six U.S. and Canadian print equipment dealerships that act as exclusive distributors of RMGT presses in sheet sizes up to 25″ x 36″. Another dealer, RM Machinery (RMM), handles RMGT’s 28″ x 40″, 29 “x 41,” and 32″ x 44″ machines.

Representing the line at the RMGT stand in Hall 16 at drupa will be an eight-color convertible perfector from the company’s 9 Series of eight-up platforms; and a straight printing, six-color 10 Series press in a 40″ format with a coater and a heavy-stock option for packaging. Both will have LED UV units for instant curing and an onboard camera inspection system for quality monitoring. The 9 Series press will feature automated plate changing and makeready. Also to be shown is the RMGT DP7, a six-up, liquid toner digital offset press developed jointly with Miyakoshi Printing Machinery and first seen in prototype at drupa 2012.

In operation since late last year, the new Series 9 press at Metzgers is packed with the assets that RMGT will promote at drupa 2016. Designated 9210P, the 5/5 long perfector is the first Series 9 press to be installed in North America with 10 printing units. An eight-up machine by virtue of its 25″ x 36″ sheet size, the 9210P perfects at 13,000 sheets per hour and prints one side at 16,200 sph. Its engineering refinements include makeready automation; fully automatic sequential plate changing; double-diameter, stainless steel impression and transfer cylinders; an anilox coater; a heavy-duty Mitsubishi feeder; and automatic blanket and impression cylinder washup.

The RMGT 9210P at Metzgers is an eight-up, 5/5 long perfector featuring LED UV.

One of the 9210P’s most distinctive features is its triple drying system, consisting of strategically placed LED UV, conventional UV, and IR units that leave sheets fully dry on both sides when they enter the delivery. So efficient is the drying setup that so far, there has been no need for Metzgers to use the press’s offset spray powder dispenser.

RMGT sees LED UV as a key point of differentiation for the product line. Twenty-one RMGT presses installed in North America have it; the company has made 165 such placements worldwide. Ryobi was an early entrant into the field, having equipped its first presses with LED UV technology from Panasonic in 2008. RMGT believes that this pioneering embrace has given it an eight-year head start on press manufacturers coming to the technology only more recently.

LED UV uses light emitting diodes instead of conventional UV lamps to cure compatibly  formulated inks and coatings. Compared with standard UV lamps, instant-on/off LED arrays consume less power (up to 80% less, according to RMGT), operate at cooler temperatures, and last longer. In the 9210P at Metzgers, a limitation of LED UV—the fact that it does not have as many compatible inks and coatings to work with as conventional UV—is overcome by combining both types of exposure with IR for one-pass curing with all kinds of fluids and substrates.

This flexibility and the all-around versatility of the 9210P are what cemented Metzgers’ decision to invest in it. “We wanted to be one of the frontrunners in LED UV,” said Tom Metzger, CEO. With LED UV, he said, it’s possible to take fully cured signatures straight from the delivery to the bindery and turn around a 32-page book or a 64-page magazine “in one day.” Metzger said he foresees a rising demand for jobs with the kinds of value-adding coatings and special effects that the 9210P’s multi-capable drying system is designed for.

Because of the way the machine is configured, Metzger said, “we think of it as many different presses”: one that can run 2/2, 4/4, 5/5, or straight in formats from 12″ x 18″ all the way to eight-up. In the full size, it’s more cost efficient for the company’s signature-based magazine work than an eight-up 40″ press would have been. With its 53′ footprint, it’s also more compact—an advantage that can be seen in the fact that the 10-unit 9210P takes up no more linear space in the pressroom than the 40″ Mitsubishi six-color machine sitting next to it.

The practical appeal doesn’t end there. Although the 9210P isn’t designed primarily for packaging, its ability to print thick stocks is one that Metzger intends to exploit in pursuit of that market. In anticipation of the work, he has installed the press on an 8″ concrete slab to accommodate the extra pile height of packaging stocks in the feeder.

For RMGT, the 9210P at Metzgers represents all of the competitive advantages it believes it can have in a resurgent market for offset printing equipment.

Chris Manley, who sells RMGT presses in the Midwest as president of Graphco (part of the GSNA dealer network), noted that for about five years after the 2007-2008 recession, there was “very constricted investment” in offset as many printers—including Metzgers—put their money into lower-priced digital devices. Now, however, these printers are realizing that their offset presses—responsible, according to Manley, for 80% of the revenue in most shops with both capabilities—are in need of competitive upgrading.

Chris Manley displays a 25″ x 36″ press sheet from the RMGT 9210P at Metzgers.

According to Ichimasa, RMGT is well positioned to attract printers “coming back to offset” with presses that can deliver offset quality in digital quantities. The combined technical strengths of Ryobi and Mitsubishi give RMGT an edge against other offset manufacturers trying to accomplish the same thing, he said. Ichimasa welcomes his rivals’ late-blooming interest in LED UV since it expands a market where RMGT is already solidly established.

Pricing also will be used to competitive advantage. For example, RMGT is positioning the Series 9 presses as equipment that delivers eight-up printing at a six-up press price: 40% less expensive to buy than a 40″ machine, and correspondingly less expensive to operate because of the smaller format size and the energy cost savings from LED UV.

All of these strengths arise from the harmonious coming-together of Ryobi and Mitsubishi since the merger took effect, Ichimasa said. He described the companies as neighbors located no farther apart in Japan than Toledo is from Detroit in the U.S.—a drive of less than an hour. Because they were based in the Hiroshima region, he said, “they were not city boys”: grounded in one of Japan’s principal industrial centers, but outside the megalopolitan orbit of Tokyo.

This meant that they shared a culture, a dialect, and a loyalty to Hiroshima Toyo Carp, the region’s big-league baseball team. They dealt with many of the same vendors, and Ryobi even manufactured components for Mitsubishi prior to the merger.

All of the ingredients for a successful integration were in place when the companies decided to join forces, according to Ichimasa. “It was like a marriage between neighbors since childhood,” he said.

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“Many printers in North America will not be able to attend drupa 2016, so we are thrilled to host an event that will provide a preview of what will be unveiled in Dusseldorf,” states Chris Manley, President of Graphco, Midwest Distributor for RMGT. “Metzgers Printing + Mailing is a great venue for our event as their production environment leverages the best technologies in digital and offset printing. Offset printing will still play a major role in the production supply chain for today’s media mix. By running live jobs throughout the day, printers will see how RMGT innovations provide offset quality at digital quantities.”

Highlighting the day’s agenda, Yuzuru Ichimasa, President of RMGT, and Kozac Takata, Manager of International Sales and Marketing, will discuss the plans of RMGT at drupa 2016. RMGT will be exhibiting at drupa 2016 in booth D24 in Hall 16 at Messe Düsseldorf, Germany from May 31 to June 10, 2016. The theme of the RMGT exhibit will be “IRODORI — Coloring the World Together.” The booth will feature three press models: RMGT 9, 8-up offset press, RMGT 10, 1,050 mm format offset press, and the new RMGT DP7, B2-size liquid toner type digital offset press being jointly developed with Miyakoshi Printing Machinery Co., Ltd.

“Successful commercial printers are getting their arms around the production and economic parameters of offset and digital printing,” continues Manley. “Our live press demonstrations will validate the role offset will play in economically turning short run jobs, while providing all the benefits of offset printing.” The RMGT 9 Series press at Metzgers Printing + Mailing is the largest and most highly equipped machine of its kind in North America and features the entire suite of RMGT Smart Insta.Color process automation plus best in class energy efficiency. RMGT’s LED UV, Hi-Cure UV and IR Drying technology provide maximum flexibility addressing a wide variety of production needs.

The event will be held on May 10, 2016 at Metzgers Printing + Mailing (207 Arco Drive, Toledo, OH). Pre-register to attend at: http://www.ryobimhi.com/predrupa.html

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With a sharp focus on the core print production requirements of today’s printing companies, RMGT will exhibit real world solutions to real world challenges in the key market segments of general commercial print, packaging print and digital print. In the offset print segment, RMGT’s leadership in the LED UV revolution will be emphasized with fully evolved LED UV instant curing of perfected print on the highly successful 8-up RMGT 9 Series 4/4 long perfector and full color print and coating on the B1 size RMGT 10 Series six-color with coater. The true B2 size RMGT DP 7 Series digital press will highlight the speed and versatility available to digital printers who prefer a more established liquid toner solution for their most challenging small lot and variable data digital projects.

Even in a recovering offset print market, commercial printers of all sizes continue to face major challenges in the most important aspect of business: profitability. RMGT’s response, the highly successful 8-up RMGT 9 Series will be exhibited in the popular 8-color 4/4 LED UV one and done configuration, helping commercial printers regain profits lost to much more expensive and aging manufacturing processes. Featuring RMGT’s G3 LED UV curing technology, Smart RPC simultaneous plate changing, Smart Insta.Color makeready automation and PQS in-line print quality control system, the RMGT 9 provides the lowest total cost of manufacturing in the 16-page print production arena. The newly adopted RMGT PQS system scans both sides of the sheet to provide closed loop color management in real time along with monitoring registration accuracy and print quality. RMGT 9 brings digital run lengths into the offset pressroom offering high profitability in run lengths ranging from 750 sheets well into the millions.

Addressing the needs of packaging printers, the RMGT 10 Series is a 1,050 mm, six-color press that is compatible with a wide range of stock thicknesses ranging from as thin as 0.04mm to as heavy as 1.0mm. This press can perform non-stop printing on heavy stock thanks to a newly developed automatic non-stop feeder and delivery shutter. It is also equipped with a chamber coater, and demonstrations will feature varnish coating using an LED-UV curing unit. The press features a PQS in-line printing quality control system for quality management of package printing on heavy stock.

The much-anticipated RMGT DP7 will make its debut in Hall 16 of Messe Dusseldorf and this true 6-up liquid toner digital offset press brings RMGT’s legendary quality, durability and reliability to the digital pressroom. Featuring a 23.5×31˝ sheet size, 6-8,000sph production speed, and adopting the well established liquid toner imaging process, the RMGT DP7 flexibly meets the need for custom print production for very small lots. The RMGT DP7 demonstrations will highlight the advantages of RMGT’s fully evolved paper handling technology, robust offset liquid toner imaging technology and industrial stacked fusing unit will provide printers who are searching for a digital platform with offset quality and reliability.

About RMGT (RYOBI MHI Graphic Technology)
RMGTis among the world’s largest manufacturers of sheet-fed offset printing presses and the world leader in LED-UV technology with over 165 placements worldwide. Its high-speed, fully automated presses are respected worldwide for unsurpassed print quality, low total cost of ownership, extreme ease of operation, and unmatched reliability. In partnership with Panasonic, RMGT released LED-UV Curing for Print at DRUPA 2008 and we now offer the only G3 LED-UV technology on the market. Headquartered outside of Hiroshima, Japan, RMGT is a joint venture company bringing together the best technology and manufacturing expertise of Ryobi Limited and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The enhanced product lineup and strengthened manufacturing prowess makes RMGT an indispensable brand for the printing industry.

About Graphic Systems North America (GSNA)
GSNA delivers exclusive access to the RMGT 9 Series, 7 Series, 5 Series, and 3 Series line of offset presses for commercial, packaging and in-plant printers in the United States and Canada. They also provide immediate technical support and parts fulfillment. Formed in July 2013 with co-headquarters in four U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, the GSNA group has more than $60 million in revenue and constitutes the single largest offset press sales and service team in North America.

Source: RMGT and GSNA.

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Pushes into Full Sheet Market in Only Four Years

New Berlin, Wisconsin – Why would a printing firm competing in the highly competitive Retail Marketing, Retail Packaging and Nationwide Field Distribution segment of the Print Market make the leap into the full sheet arena in just four short years?  The answer is that having quadrupled sales since their foundation in 2012, partners Brad Flagge and Nick Bova saw no reason to slow down simply because they had reached capacity in their manufacturing plant.  The investment in a new RMGT 9 Series Press more than triples their capacity so the meteoric trajectory of well-named Push Solutions can push on into the future.

Despite growing their staff from 9 employees to 24 and running their existing Heidelberg equipment around the clock, Push Solutions highly demanding clients still needed more and more volume and shorter and shorter delivery times.  “Serving our local customers throughout the Southeastern Wisconsin market and also our high volume retail customers in New York and Chicago was becoming a huge challenge,” states Nick Bova, Vice President.  “Our projects are seldom a single process order so post print finishing, kitting and special field distribution adds time to our projects. We had to compress our timeline to continue our rapid growth plans.  The LED-UV curing and full sheet production of our new RMGT press has changed our entire approach to production. In addition, we are very excited about our future opportunities producing high value products for our customers.  Printing on synthetics, plastics, vinyl and foil materials will really leverage the power of our LED-UV technology and our new RMGT press.”

Push Solutions need to expand capacity was really accelerated by their Retail Marketing and Retail Packaging clients, so the next decision was what brand of offset press to invest in to meet their customers’ demand.  “The highest print quality, reliability and responsiveness from our equipment provider were our primary concerns,” comments Brad Flagge, President.  “When Nick and I looked at the new RMGT 9 Series at Graph Expo 2014, we were very impressed.  The vibrant color and instant curing of the sheets with LED-UV and the extremely fast make-ready was a great fit for our production needs.  Every RMGT customer we spoke to raved about their experience, from installation to press productivity, so we decided to move forward and buy the 9 Series.”

Since commissioning their new RMGT 920ST-5+CC+LED-UV+IR in late January, the staff at Push Solutions has not only completed Graphco’s in-depth training regime and achieved G7 color standardization status, but also Insourced dozens of jobs that were previously jobbed out.  “Working with the Push Solutions pressroom staff was a real pleasure,” says John Arnold, Technical Service Manager for Graphco, the RMGT Distributor for the Midwest.  “It’s great to work through our training process with such professional pressmen.”  Joining the new RMGT 9 Series is a new full size CTP system, so the G7 process was smooth and efficient.

The press configuration chosen by Push Solutions includes a full array of RMGT Smart technology including the patented Smart Insta.Color Make-ready technology, 16,000 Sheet Per Hour production speeds and RMGT/Panasonic LED-UV Curing along with IR/Hot Air drying to provide Aqueous Coating when that is appropriate for their customers’ needs.  Brad Flagge adds, “Speed to market is key for our retail marketing and packaging customers and nothing beats LED-UV when it comes to moving our customers’ projects through the plant.  The efficiency we have already achieved is proving out our theory that the RMGT 9 Series is the lowest cost-to-print on the market and our finishing house loves our powder-free and completely dry printing.  Our pressmen have commented on the workplace and environmental advantages as well since the new press is so much easier to run than our old press and with no VOCs or powder the pressroom stays clean and odor free. RMGT was the only press manufacturer to satisfy all five of our requirements for: power consumption, footprint, color control, automation and cost.”

“We are proud to be part of Brad and Nick’s success and it’s certainly exciting to work with such a fast growing and results-oriented organization.  Based on how quickly their team has adopted the new RMGT technology, we feel a great partnership has emerged between Push Solutions, RMGT and Graphco,” states Derek Gordon, Midwest Regional Manager for Graphco.

Push Solutions is featured in Printing Impression, April 2016 Issue:

The post Push Solutions Quickly Grows into RMGT 9 Series with LED-UV appeared first on Graphco.

We are so excited to begin construction!

 
The WD Manley Technology Center at Graphco Headquarters – 7,000 sq ft expansion to showcase full line-up of RMGT offset presses, along with other key technology from industry leaders. Give each customer same experience as if attending a major trade show. From pre-press to print to finishing.
 

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Sheetfed Offset, Too

Purchasing even a new B2 digital press can be cost-prohibitive for smaller print firms, in access of a $1-million investment for some models, warned Chris Manley, president of Graphco, the Cleveland-area equipment dealer that hawks both digital (MGI) and offset (RMGT/Ryobi) presses. “A lot of smaller-format [offset] presses are being sold,” Manley added, largely due to the shorter run lengths still prevalent throughout the industry.

And then there’s over-capacity, of course, which still plagues printers. The attrition rate for larger presses definitely is higher, Manley added, citing the equipment auction emails many of us receive regularly: “Probably 95 of 100 auctions have full-size, 40-inch machines” for sale, he observed.

1. Less volume: If you are a “short-run printer,” turning increasingly more jobs but at fewer quantities, the smaller format size features faster makeready and uses less waste paper to get “up to color.”
2. Flexibile job change-overs: With more jobs in the queue, changing sheet sizes is easier and quicker on a smaller printing press. Time is money in a short-run environment.
3. Hourly rates are less: A lot of print service providers (PSPs) don’t have or want full-size equipment, and they never will, Manley said, because these owners and managers like being able to run a press with a single operator. Most full-size, 40-inch presses require twice the labor, or two operators.

From a paper-buying perspective, printers can run eight-page signatures on larger presses using 24×36 inch sheets, which is a standard stocking size, he continued. Being able to run six 8.5×11 inch pages in “three-quarter format” is a strong lure, Manley said.

About a year ago, commercial printer The Messenger Press Inc. installed a 24×31-inch Ryobi MHI 755XL GP perfecting press with aqueous coater at its Carthagena plant in northwestern Ohio. Mitch Kremer a 30-something COO working side by side with his father, Allan, made a conscious, total-cost-of-ownership decision not to move “up” to an eight-up machine, saying he did not want to have to buy a bigger plate-maker and a bigger cutter. The press is providing Messenger with significant increases in productivity and enhanced print quality as the Kremers grow their presence throughout Ohio and the Midwest.

“This will be our main production machine for short-run offset,” reported the younger Kremer, who joined the now 134-year-old firm seven years ago and became a VP in early 2012. “It will bring us into the next 10 to 15 years.” Messenger replaced a 2001 vintage six-color (2 over 4) sheetfed perfector from a different manufacturer.

Kremer traveled to RYOBI MHI customers in Cleveland and Cincinnati to observe similar perfector presses in action. “We saw the LED-UV feature on the press in Atlanta, too,” he recalled, in addition to chatting via phone with some East Coast plants. John Arnold, the technical service manager for Graphco, then “walked us through the design changes and improvements on our specific configuration.

“We’re a job shop,” Kremer continued, “so we will need to determine where best to put the work: on our MGI digital press or the new Ryobi. When we consider the final trim size and finishing requirements of a job, we find that it can be faster to run 2,000 on the RYOBI MHI 755 XLGP than on the digital press.” The bottom line, he said, is operating as efficiently and leanly as possible — no matter which output technology is used.

RYOBI MHI Graphic Technology Ltd. (RMGT) since has rebranded its Ryobi 750 G series, which prints a full 31-inch sheet and now is designated as the 790 model (the metric equivalent in millimeters). “The maximum sheet size is 23.83×31 inches, versus 29,” explained Manley. “The extra two inches fits in nicely with the packaging aspects of the machine,” he noted, adding that it is two inches wider than competing presses in that category (namely, Heidelberg and Komori’s).

The 790 series also is available with Ryobi’s RPC system that “can simultaneously change plates in under two minutes, even on a 10-color press,” according to Manley. It features a re-engineered, 55-inch color monitor mounted to the press console, giving “operators a much faster and more intuitive observation,” he reported. Cameras placed around the press monitor activity at the feeder, for example. On perfecting models, these cameras “peer inside the press at 15,000 sheets per hour,” Manley added. “The camera system backs up the previous 15 minutes of operation onto an internal hard drive, allowing for review, adjustments, and corrections.

You can read the full article here:

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