News

Dec 2024

Back Row: Mr. Katsushi Hirokawa (left, RMGT President), Mr. Kohei Yatsumoto (centre, RMGT Senior Advisor), Mr. Tetsuma Matsuoka (right, RMGT Group Leader)
Front Row: Mr. Jamie McMullan (left, Director, Oakdene), Mr. Dermot McMullan (right, Director, Oakdene)

Oakdene growth expands to RMGT 970 perfector

In just three years the Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, trade printer Oakdene has grown from its first RMGT 924 LED-UV litho press, via a second similar RMGT machine, to now confirming the order for an RMGT 978 LED-UV perfector. The press has been purchased through the RMGT distributor for the UK and Ireland, MPL Ltd, a division of the M Partners Group.

“We just haven’t stopped growing,” said Jamie McMullan, Director of Oakdene. “The RMGT press quality, format, price, and reliability have all been critical in our amazing success.”

The RMGT 970 perfector once again incorporates LED-UV, the market leading on-press instant drying solution. “Above all though, the LED-UV has been the biggest game changer for us. It effectively means that we can produce prints that are dry the moment they arrive in the delivery – just like digital! But we can do it at a fraction of the price-per-page of any digital printing machine available on quantities of just 250 copies.”

The Oakdene order is for an RMGT 970PF-8+PQS-D, which includes RMGT’s Printing Quality System. This monitors ink density and print registration for each sheet via a camera inspection system.

[Full technical detail of these items at the end of the release]

“Having seen the RMGT 970 perfector in action at Drupa earlier this year, we could see clearly the next step forward for our business. The expanded format will give us added flexibility, opening the door to more work from the B1 sector. The perfecting solution means that we will immediately slash make-ready times – auto plate loading for example. Anything that can take non-productive time out of the day is an important issue for me and the team.”

[Please note, this is not the Drupa stand demonstration machine. That system was sold and shipped to North America.]

“Many of the advanced features of this press will aid the press operator, and aid fast press set-up. We are only too aware of the universal skills shortage across the UK and Eire, so anything that makes our press minders job a bit easier is always welcomed.

“A core sector for us is the ever-growing number of small Irish digital printers. Many of these have sprung up in recent years, creating successful small, local print businesses, by purchasing inexpensive short run inkjet machines. Many had no real appreciation of run-length and cost-per-copy when they set up their businesses. They can handle work in the hundreds, but when a request expands beyond that, they have no immediate answer. The click charges just prices them out of the market. And that’s when they contact us. We can run the quantity required and deliver back next day, white paper wrapped, to the print company, for them to brand as their own if required.

“One other sector is the more mature print business. Typically, they had been state-of-the-art printers in terms of kit 10-or-more years ago. The owners have been considering their succession plan for some time: they don't want to invest big money in more heavy metal – that would leave them in a couple of million pounds of debt – so instead they have purchased a smaller digital print machine, thinking that would do for them, before potentially handing the business over to family members, or just putting it up for sale. They know of our service and can come to us for those longer runs.

“For us, succession was also an issue. My father had started the business, and had been running a successful operation, so when we discussed handing the business over, I needed to make a decision: to carry on with the old, unreliable offset kit; to go down the digital route; or to invest heavily in a quality offset press. “Offset won the day for me, but it won because the guys at RMGT showed me how an offset litho press needed to look in the 2020’s and beyond – a very reliable, SRA1 format machine, with a B2 footprint, delivering dry prints, at a more than respectable speed. This combination would provide the Oakdene business with the answer to the question that all the digital printers were asking: how can I produce print volume at a sensible unit cost?

“Having graduated to a second SRA1 RMGT press just one year after the first, we are now at the point where a perfecting press makes real sense for us and our customers.

“Reliability is a critical component of the RMGT package. Since our first installation in 2021 we have called for technical support minimal times because of a mechanical issue. These presses just run and run. That’s important here in Ireland particularly. We can’t expect every machine manufacturer to have a service guy sitting here twiddling his thumbs on the off chance of a call coming in. I speak to other printers across Ireland, and I’ve heard some real horror stories regarding general service issues, response times, spares required, and the total cost. I can’t afford for my press to go down. Having worked with RMGT presses, and MPL, for three years, so I've got every confidence that the system will keep us going.”

Commenting on this latest press sale, Mark Stribley, Joint MD of MPL, said: “We knew that Jamie and his father would be able to see the logic of trading back their two existing RMGT presses for a single perfector, so when the equipment for Drupa was announced we immediately invited them to Düsseldorf to see the press in action, and to discuss a potential deal.”

PQS-D (I+R+C), Detail on Press Specification

Printing Quality System - Density (Inspection + Register + Colour)

RMGT use an RGB camera for inline Inspection + Register + Colour, so hence it’s referred to as Density. Because density (delta.D) is a thickness of ink its perfectly acceptable to read the inline condition of a sheet with density. It’s much quicker, and much more cost effective and more reliable as there are fewer moving parts. Three out of the five major manufacturers use this method, while the other two use spectrophotometry within the press. There is still debate on the best method.

Inspection - Can detect defects, such has catch up/scumming, hickies, mixing text etc, to either the “OK Pass sheet” or the PDF depending on the level of inspection opted for. The ranking of the inspection can be adjusted by the operator to avoid acceptable minor defects which can slow down production. Factory fitted tab insertion is used to separate good sheets from defective sheets, making it easy for post press discard or separate to maintain quality.

Register - Registration marks positioned on the sheet where quality matters, not in the colour bar on the front edge, where it’s impossible to predict the register on the rest of the sheet. The press uses either the black or the cyan as it’s keyline colour and automatically adjusts the register to operator programmed or default tolerances. Once the job is in register the onboard systems give that element the green light and the system maintains the register throughout the run. The press still has all its manual functions for all of the processes in registering, even down to adjusting fanout at the plate clamp.

Colour - The various paper types a customer use to print can be profiled, so required densities are achieved with minimum paper waste, and the changes in print room environment and consumables are kept in check with further automation. Special colours have to be measured via the spectrophotometer at the press console and once a delta.D value has been established the press takes over with automated inline control. The press saves the colour for automated use the next time the colour is required. If there is any deviation between the RGB inline camera and the console spectrophotometer a simple “Offset” button is pressed to remove the deviation.

The above system allows for SAP (Smart Assisted Printing) can be used on the press. SAP has two modes – Standard-assist mode for fast seamless printing from job to job; and Semi-assist mode for work containing special colours and requiring further attention to detail, customer passes, or changes to default programmed density figures. The SAP adopts a second factory fitted tab inserter on the other side of the delivery for separating good sheets from make-ready sheets for post press without the need for the operator to intervene. As soon as the clock comes on for good sheets it fires in a tab and once the job/section is complete it fires in another.

For further information on RMGT offset printing presses, GUK folding and inserting products, Mabeg inspection systems, or about MPL please contact:

Russell J Hicks
Genesis Marketing Services (Milton Keynes)
21 Foundry Walk, Thrapston, Northamptonshire NN14 4LS

Phone: 07885 852 428

e-mail: Russ.Hxs@Gmail.com

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