Watch the Step to Wider Roll Widths

Ultra Wide Web Offset Presses (UWWO)

This new PrintCity report is the culmination of alliance member’s work to assess high productivity web offset presses of over 2 metres in web width.  

It takes into account all aspects of applications & key investment decision criteria for successful operation and the reduction of total production costs.  

The purpose of this publication is to review some of the technical and economic implications of the complete process chain featuring heatset offset presses with wide web widths. The report focuses on some of the key UWWO questions: 

·         What will be the applications for this new press class?

·         How will the larger offset press capacity compete with publishing gravure?

·         What are the key investment decision criteria?

·         What will be the key factors for successful operation?

Ultra Wide Web Offset is the next step to extending commercial heatset web offset productivity with web widths over 2 m wide, that are now being extended to nearly 3 m. These presses allow production of 80 pages A4 long grain or 96 pages long grain or short grain. 

The move to very large format offset presses began in the late 1990s with sheetfed offset, newspaper presses with 2211 mm web width, and High Volume Offset (HVO) heatset presses up to 1980 mm. The first UWWO presses were delivered in 2007 and in 2010 there are around 50 presses installed. 

Key UWWO questions

UWWO presses are breaking new ground in terms of productivity, enabling the offset process to compete successfully in areas previously dominated by gravure. At the same time, they pose new challenges in press design, material science and operational skills to all concerned in building, equipping and running them. 

The 11 PrintCity member & partner companies participating in this unique cross-industry project represent the “who’s who” of the web offset printing supply chain. By sharing their expertise they are able to examine more thoroughly system issues to gain a better understanding of them and provide more effective solutions. 

PrintCity’s Ultra Wide Web Offset Project is a follow-on from “Watch the Step to Larger Roll Diameters”. This report is the industry’s definitive evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of moving from 1250 to 1500 mm diameter paper rolls. 

PrintCity Ultra Wide Web Offset project team members are: Böttcher, FujiFilm, Lüscher, manroland, MEGTEC, Müller Martini, Procemex, Sonoco-Alcore, Sun Chemical, Trelleborg and UPM. 

The Watch the Step to Wider Roll Widths report is available via the PrintCity Shop at www.printcity.de/shop  

You can download an Executive Summary by clicking on the PDF file symbol below.