Why Choose Offset? Do the Math

In a world gone cuckoo for all things digital, the print service provider investing in an offset press may often seem like some sort of curmudgeon hanging on to the vestiges of days gone by. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Eyes fully open to what is happening in the market, these PSPs embrace what digital printing has to offer – variable-data printing, ultra-fast turnaround of short run work – but also recognize that offset still has a place in their service offerings.

In fact, according to Douglas Schardt, Komori’s national product manager, drupa 2016 spotlighted offset’s steadfast importance in the graphics arena. “During the show, which highlighted both digital and offset, it was clear to me that digital is not a replacement technology for offset,” he asserted. “It can work in conjunction with offset but it will be at a higher production price and narrowed range of effects.

“In the future it may advance to the point that it becomes the predominate process, but for the foreseeable future it will be an additional tool in the production toolbox suitable for a certain role,” he added.

The reasons, he pointed out, are:

• Digital is slow. Typically a quality digital press is maxed somewhere around 3,000 sph whereas offset is more like 18,000 sph max speed.
• Digital is expensive – due to ink costs or inks costs plus the need to run only coated stock on some brands.
• Offset’s efficiency is improving all the time. Currently offset can produce sellable work in about 10 sheets on a make-ready. The crossover point is either very low or nonexistent in these cases.
• Offset’s uptime and reliability, and its life cycle, is “head and shoulders” above digital.
• Digital’s limited capabilities. An offset press prints on a wide range of stock – from very thin to very thick – and can run PMS, varnishes, metallic, coatings, special enhancements, etc. Digital is still very limited, says Schardt.
• The dot range on offset, in general, is greater.
• The opportunity cost is pretty high with digital.

“I can illustrate this [last point] with the following example,” Schardt said. “ If I print 500 sheet runs on a new digital or a new offset, I can pretty easily get 10 jobs an hour completed on an offset. That’s not the maximum output but a comfortable work pace. On a digital press I might get six jobs done in that same hour. So the score is 10 to 6. By the end of the second hour the score is 20 to 12, and by the third hour is 30 to 18 and so on. Every hour I run digital I fall farther behind what could have been achieved running an offset press. Hence, I lose the opportunity of making more money in a given period of time. Further, if you consider every sheet printed digital is a lot more expensive than that printed by offset and the model becomes even more grim.”

Schardt’s analysis is predicated on the PSP running a new, highly efficient offset press vs. a new highly efficient digital press. In the case where a printer is currently running an older and inefficient offset press but is considering a new digital, the digital may look pretty good by comparison, Schardt noted.

“At KBA, we see a place for both sheetfed offset and digital printing, as do our customers,” said Alex Stepanian, regional sales director, KBA North America, Inc. “Our printer-customers are having discussions with their customers regularly to choose the most suitable process for their printed job; these deciding factors include the job structure, quality and finishing requirements.”

He continued, “Our company continues to innovate with amazing technology to allow our sheetfed offset presses to be competitive with digital. For example, due to our unique technology, our Rapida sheetfed offset press customers are running the fastest presses on the market at 20,000 sph with on-the-fly make-ready.”

With the ability of digital to largely match the quality of offset output (in a color managed environment), the decision on what device to run the job on is driven by the potential profit margin for the printer, so the technologies need to co-exist, noted Andy Rae, Heidelberg’s SVP of equipment.

“It’s not a case of technology choice over cost unless the other is incapable of producing the output in the first place. A couple of examples of this are collated books directly off a digital device, or special coating effects only achievable off an offset press. At the end of the day, the most successful printers will be the ones who understand their costs. Producing a job via the more expensive process is not good business practice irrespective of the technology you use to produce it!”

In other words, the profit per job should be the driver of which technology and processes are used.

At drupa, Modern Litho Printer Company signed for a Speedmaster XL 106-5-LYYL-P+5+L giving the Jefferson City, MO company the ability to coat both sides of a job in a single pass — for the result of improved productivity and reduced manufacturing costs.

The XL 106 LPCPPC—which stands for print, coat, perfect, print, and coat – takes full printed sheets that have been aqueous coated on both sides from delivery to the bindery.

“If a printer has a customer that needs special effects printing such as foiling or die cutting, that type of work can only be accomplished with offset printing,” noted Stepanian.

“Our offset printing customers also sell their services because, unlike digital, they can produce the widest range of color reproduction. Bright florescence, Pantones, metallic, foils, and varnishes can all be produced using this method of printing. With offset, they are able to use better quality inks and make adjustments to ink density. Our offset press customers can produce work on a wide variety of paper weights, size, and textures. If a printer’s customer requires the most accurate color reproduction and consistency, only offset can accomplish that high bar.”

For customers who require large print runs, only offset can reproduce these jobs extremely quickly and cost-efficiently.

“Many of our customers are beginning to equip their KBA Rapida presses with LED UV so that they can offer exceptional results for immediate post production steps such as cutting, scoring and fabrication,” said Stepanian.

A case in point is Crossmark Graphics, located in New Berlin, Wisconsin. Looking at where it had potential to grow its market share, “five years ago we started looking at UV printing,” Jim Dobrzynski Sr., founder of Crossmark Graphics explains. After going to the UV conference and looking at where UV printing was headed, Crossmark decided to purchase a Komori six-color with coater, equipped with an AMS LED UV system. Last year, Crossmark added to its UV capability with a six-color Rapida 106 press equipped with a coater and a a VariDry HL Blue IR/HA/UV drying system.

Like the Komori UV press, the Rapida will be used to print lenticular and on plastic, both areas of growth for the PSP. LED to cure the inks and traditional UV in the delivery for UV coatings. “We get the benefits of LED UV cured inks: with the economy, wide choices, and special effects available in traditional UV coatings,” said Dobrzynski.

While 80 percent of Crossmark’s business is derived from printing on paper, a fast-growing area is printing on plastic, which now encompasses 20 percent of the firm’s output. Also, its KBA Rapida 106 press has an extra LED lamp on the press, giving Crossmark the ability to do more special effects.

That’s not to say digital printing in not an important aspect of the work Crossmark produces – it is. For Crossmark, it’s all about producing a high-quality product, whether that product is digital, wide-format, lenticular, or offset. While digital printing is an important department at Crossmark, said Dobrynski, it requires its digital presses to have deliver the same quality as offset.

“I am happy to say that we able to produce lenticular printing offset, digitally and digital wide-format,” added Dobrynski.

In Virginia, Worth Higgins & Associates, is the beta site for the Komori Impremia IS29, a 29-inch inkjet, sheetfed UV printing system. The company chose the IS29 to expand its ability to economically produce the variable short-run, high-quality color printing not feasible on a traditional press. The Impremia IS29 inkjet printing system, prints on a wide range of stocks. Taking advantage of UV inkjet characteristics, this system is designed for commercial and package print applications.

“We see the IS29 as the future of technology,” said Rick LaReau, CEO of Worth Higgins & Associates. “The Komori Impremia IS29 runs a 23×29-inch sheet, ideal for six-up print production with full variable print applications that can come right off the machine to finishing and get out the door quickly,” he continued. “The IS29 operates in perfecting or straight mode, does not require pre-coated paper and runs at speeds of 3,000 sheets per hour in straight mode.

This is Worth Higgins second Komori UV press; in Feb. 2015, Worth Higgins it installed a new six color 40-inch UV Komori press.

In Fort Worth, TX, 4 Color Press specializes in short run. But the lean and mean PCP doesn’t accomplish short run with digital output devices; instead, it uses a Speedmaster XL 75-5+L equipped with Anicolor, along with laser-driven file to plate technology.

“We routinely have people who want projects [at the] last minute; to be able to have very short make-ready times, very little waste and the ability to create a high-end, quality product in the least amount of time is what has given us the success that we’ve had,” said Andrew Fuld, co-owner.

The press helps drive up efficiency rates; following the Speedmaster XL’s installation, 4 Color Press improved make-ready times by approximately 26 percent and run speeds by almost 40 percent.