Metzgers Printing
   Automating Sheetfed Presses For the Sake of Productivity

For the past 10 years, sheetfed press manufacturers have focused on changing the design of a press by automating its moving parts. Wherever an operator manually touches the press, manufacturers have been seeking a way to automate the process. This automation has dovetailed with the fact that many printers are not finding highly qualified employees to operate their presses; thus, automation allows lesser-skilled employees to produce a high-quality job.

Automation has also made gains in smaller sheetfed shops. Metzgers Printing, a general commercial printer located in Holland, Ohio, near Toledo, has seen its business grow and noted significant gains in makeready and turn-around by installing an automated press last December.

The 25-year-old shop, which is owned by two brothers, had been using a 20" sheetfed press but it felt it was ready to move up to the 28" (so-called half-size) press format.

"We believed that the half-size press model could produce a lot more work, so we took a full year to carry out a thorough check of all the presses available and which ones had the best print quality and most automation," says Joe Metzger, president. "One of our main needs was a coater. We chose a 28" five-color Sakurai press equipped with a coater. One of the reasons for selecting the Sakurai was because of the technical support we expected from Graphco, our local dealer. Graphco's assistance has been professional and invaluable in making this type of transition."

The company's clientele, located within a 60-mile radius of Toledo, includes large wood-working, furniture, automotive, and ad agency clients. Metzgers Printing is also a tier-one supplier to Relizon, a large Dayton, Ohio printer that needs brochures, product catalogs, sell sheets, and direct-mail pieces.

The new press's automation has been crucial to Metzgers' success. "The number-one automated feature is Auto-Plate," says Joe Metzger. "In addition, we utilize a lot of extra features; for example, we have automatic wash-ups that have been extremely important. We can set the paper to different sizes, all from the console, and we installed the Scitex Brisque workflow, which talks to the press and exchanges data on each job. Finally, having a coater makes all of our jobs look better, plus we can print and finish them much faster."