Goss finds new offset avenue

Amid all the drupa news about inkjet technology and digital printing, Goss International chief Jochen Meissner has urged attendees "not to forget" conventional print methods.

"Offset is the number one way to produce print today and we believe it will be for many years to come," Meissner stated. "Our 96pp Sunday 5000 web press can produce more than 5m pages per hour – digital, take that! If you really want to put paper on trucks you still need a web offset press."

A unit from the giant press is on display on the Goss booth (Hall 17, stand A59), with daily demonstrations of plate changing on the unit.

The press manufacturer has entered the printed packaging market where it has identified "unexploited potential" for web offset printing, and has just secured the first customer order for its innovative Sunday Vpak web offset press. Precision Press in the US will install a Sunday Vpak 500 later this year to produce film and flexible packaging.

Units from the Vpak 3000 (up to 1,905mm web width) and Vpak 500 (up to 1,041mm) are also being showcased in theatre presentations on the Goss stand.

A new collaboration with Flint Group/Day International has added so-called ‘white light’ ?features to the Vpak. This is a special blanket layer that allows a greater number of repeat length variations from one blanket, vastly reducing the number of blanket bridging sleeve adapters required.

"At one of our customers facilities, this would save the need for 144 different adapters," said Peter Walczak, Goss International’s packaging product development director.