Crucially, there are many more B3 printers than there are B1 – a fact that has not escaped the notice of UK press manufacturers. When Manroland took the wraps off its latest press at drupa, it didn’t surprise anyone to see that it was a B3 machine – the new R50.

“There are many thousands of B3 printers,” says Manroland UK sheetfed sales director Gary Doman, “while our customer base in B1, like that of all the other press manufacturers, is numbered in a very few hundreds.”

As a strategic move for Manroland, the R50 makes excellent sense. Format-wise, it adds an entry-level machine to the German manufacturer’s portfolio that it has been lacking since the much-lamented exit of the Praktika in 1993.

At the time, the decision to get out of B3 was a sound one. The group was ploughing millions into the development of its fibre-optic networking and the Pecom control functionality, and the B3 market didn’t need those features, so the development costs were not recoverable on presses below the B2 format.

The Praktika was, in any case, an old-fashioned machine, limited by its number of units and its mechanical makeready procedures at a time when the UK print industry was getting excited by automated plate changes and presetting: it had had its day.

The R50’s inheritance
But that was then. Now, while the R50 is an entry-level machine in terms of format, it’s far from entry-level as far as its features go. It’s a further development of Manroland’s XXL technology, originally developed for the packaging-format presses and now happily embedded in the commercial presses of B1+ size downwards.

“It really is like a baby XXL machine,” Doman says, citing the double-size impression cylinders and transferters that pass the sheet between units, combining to make an all-but-flat paper path, which in turn yields the ability to print on stock as thick as 0.8mm.

Couple that with the tremendous rolling power that comes from the Manroland ink-roller pyramid, and Doman, who used to be an engineer for the biggest B3-format Japanese press supplier, says: “This machine beats the pants off the smaller Japanese presses on the market because, without wanting to do them down, all the Japanese B3 machines are built from the small format up, rather than the big format down like the R50.

“A smaller commercial printer who would usually struggle to run heavier material will be able to do so on an R50 as easily as if he was printing on a 900XXL machine. That’s not to say it couldn’t be done at all on another machine,” he adds, “but it wouldn’t do it comfortably.” 

In addition to the ink-roller train and the double-diameter cylinders on the R50, this new machine also inherits older Manroland products’ feeder board and pneumatic sidelays; the large ink reservoir that sits across the forme rollers for good ink distribution and the highly-accurate linear-slide technology on the ink ducts.

Missing parts
What’s missing on the R50 (advisedly so in view of the market requirement) is the high level of automation on the Manroland 500, 700 and 900. Substrate size settings are manual, both at feed and delivery end.

This is done by unlocking a control lever at the feed board, and rolling the feed head into position then locking that lever off again. The sidelays are wound in and out, and it’s the same at the delivery end. Although, for this reason the R50 is not JDF-compatible.

Included in the package, however, are semi-automatic plate loading (which Manroland employees call ‘EPL’ or ergonomic plate loading), full remote image control in the lateral, circumferential and diagonal planes, and fully-automatic blanket washing.

And there are options for further automation, including full remote presetting of the ink ducts through the Manroland PressPilot system, which works through the R50’s version of PressManager, the off-press control console system (or through a direct link to the platesetter or via a PC). There’s a massive maximum delivery stack of 700mm.

The current available list of configurations for the R50 has its drawbacks. For one thing, it’s only available in two-to-six units – although Doman says the B3 requirement for more than six units is “really not there to speak of” – and perhaps more importantly, it doesn’t offer a perfecting option.

“Perfecting is embraced here in the UK, but elsewhere in Europe and the rest of the world it’s not so popular,” Doman said, “and for the sake of designing the machine that best suited the overall world requirement, the decision was taken to drop the convertible option. I know this will be a bit disappointing for our UK customers, but it may be a decision that’s reversed in the future.”

Also missing from the R50 is the ability to vary the length of the delivery to accommodate various drying options. This is particularly important for printing onto unusual substrates, as the press’s 0.8mm maximum sheet thickness allows. There is just a single, standard-length delivery on the R50 (which does of course limit the footprint, an important attribute for small-format printers) although Doman says there are ways of running UV-cured inks with the requisite lamp power.

Smart coater
The Manroland Smart coater is available on the R50. ‘Smart’ in this case refers to the coater’s architecture. The anilox roller module is attached to an existing unit on the press, rather than being a unit in its own right, and drops up and down onto the unit as required. “It gives a lot of extra flexibility,” said Doman, “because you can use the unit as a print unit or a coater, and without destroying your blankets as happens when you just use a print unit to varnish.”

In view of the fact that the sales team weren’t allowed to pre-announce the press to the market, Doman was pleased with the response to the R50 at drupa. “We missed out on a whole lot of B3 printers who came to the show,” he says. The R50 is currently being sold, but won’t be shipped until the last quarter of this year. Manroland is revisiting its customer list for the Praktika, which, according to Doman, is still “a hefty foundation,” despite being 15 years old. “This is a market in which we have great historical roots,” he says.

The new R50 looks set to take a chunk of the B3 sector, both as a new machine for aspiring B3 printers, and as a subsidiary machine for B2 and B1 format printers.

SPECIFICATIONS
Max sheet size 360x520mm (option: 380x530mm)
Min sheet size 148x180mm
Max speed 13,000sph
Number of units 2-6
Stock thickness range 0.04 – 0.8mm
Contact Manroland UK 020 8648 7090   www.weareprint.com

THE ALTERNATIVES
Heidelberg Speedmaster 52
The R50 will go head to head against the SM52. Up to 10 colours, optionally convertible to perfecting, and although it can’t match the R50’s massive maximum stock thickness it can still give it a run for its money. Maximum delivery pile height is less than the R50 at 460mm or optionally 620mm, but it does have automated sheet size setting. The SM52 is also available with Anicolor, Heidelberg’s zoneless inking unit.
Max sheet size 520x370mm
Min sheet size 145x105mm
Max speed 13,000sph
Number of units 1-10
Stock thickness range 0.04 – 0.6mm

KBA Genius 52 UV
It’s offset, but not as we know it. A UV-equipped press designed for waterless printing with keyless inking – hence it’s fast to makeready and easy to run – it’s also slower than the R50, only available in four or five colours, not convertible to perfecting and there’s no coater. But it does match the R50’s maximum stock thickness and all its sheet size setting is automated.
Max sheet size 520x360mm
Min sheet size 297x210mm
Max speed 8,000sph
Number of units 4, 5
Stock thickness range 0.1 – 0.8mm

Ryobi 520 GX series
Although it’s not a big press made small as the R50 is, the Ryobi machine has a lot going for it. It can’t match the stock thickness, but it’s faster, optionally convertible, four to six units plus separate coater, and automated to the teeth – all for less than the R50.
Max sheet size 520x375mm
Min sheet size 100x105mm
Max speed 13,000sph
Number of units 4-6
Stock thickness range 0.04 – 0.6mm

Read the original article at www.printweek.com.

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