Printing Vendors Invest in Next Generation

By: Jim Rosenberg In what for many is another slow year, some vendors give to future users while trying to sell to current prospects.

Between the beginning of the calendar year and the end of the academic year, graphic arts educational institutions saw substantial contribution from suppliers to the newspaper industry -- from shortly after New Years, when East and West Coast schools dedicated manufacturer-supported printing labs, through spring, with a platesetter donation and a third press maker's ongoing support for future printers and readers at a Midwest school and newspaper.

The International Printing Week lecture series at California Polytechnic State University was the occasion for Graphic Communication Department head Harvey Levenson and Goss International Corp. CEO Bob Brown to dedicate the new Goss International Printing Laboratory at the San Luis Obispo school.

Used for students' practical education in printing, the lab's Goss Community press also produces the daily campus newspaper in full color.

At the January building dedication, Brown emphasized the role of education in keeping "printing and publishing at the forefront of global communications" and in supplying the industry's new leaders in the new century. Among the many media now available to content providers, said Brown, technology continues "to make ink on paper one of the most effective alternatives."

January also saw installation of a Heidelberg Sunday 2000 at the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology. The gapless-blanket commercial press -- which gave rise to the Mainstream newspaper press -- is the centerpiece of the university's Heidelberg Web Press Laboratory.

Announced almost two years ago, the 11,000-square-foot lab was dedicated this spring following a symposium on print media's future attended by Heidelberg Chairman Bernhard Schreier, presidents of three Heidelberg divisions, RIT President Albert J. Simone, and U.S. Public Printer Bruce James, chair of RIT's board of trustees.

Besides the education of students and those in the industry, the lab will use the press in collaboration with printers and suppliers on applied research projects. Replacing an M-1000B web press donated in 1986 by Harris Graphics, which Heidelberg acquired several years ago, the 24-page Sunday press is configured with a Contiweb SC splicer, Ecocool dryer, PCF pinless folder, and Omnicom controls. It joins RIT's other Heidelberg systems, including a scanner, sheetfed press, digital imaging press, cutter, and folder.

Suppliers contributing to the lab include Baldwin Technologies, Bottcher America, Day International, Flint Ink, Fuji Hunt, Graphic Microsystems, Just Normlicht, Nela Ternes Group, QuadTech International, Rima System, Sun Chemical, Creo, and Kodak Polychrome Graphics.

KPG gave $166,000 worth of plates, films, and proofing systems and supplies last year to several schools -- among them, Arizona State University, Cal Poly, and Clemson (S.C.) University -- and committed to continuing such contributions.

Just last month, Creo donated a very large format Trendsetter thermal computer-to-plate imager and Prinergy workflow-management system to RIT's School of Print Media. Though Creo makes models for newspapers, the Trendsetter VLF is designed for magazine, book, catalog, and directory printers, as well as converters and packaging shops. Prinergy is its end-to-end PDF work-flow management system.

Also last month, MAN Roland Inc. joined the Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, Ill., in twin efforts aimed at both ends of the educational spectrum. The first brought students from Ball State University, in Muncie, Ind., to the paper's new production facility in Schaumburg, Ill., where it recently installed two MAN Roland Regioman presses. In the second, MAN signed on as a Gold Sponsor of the Daily Herald's Newspaper In Education (NIE) program, enabling it to provide more Chicago-area classrooms with newspapers.

The plant visit by 28 students and three faculty members from Ball State's Graphic Arts Unlimited club was part of an annual event coordinated by MAN's Learning Leadership program. Hans P. Kellogg, graphic arts professor at BSU's Department of Industry and Technology directed the activities; Daily Herald production executives Bob Finch and Jerry Schur were guides.

"We can talk about the theory of the printing process but it is always helpful to see that theory in practice," said Assistant Professor Donna Zeh, the group's faculty advisor.

The next day, the group visited MAN's Graphic/Training Center in nearby Westmont, where they received basic training on and operated a sheetfed press and observed a Dicoweb, MAN's lithographic press that eliminates the need for plates. "The students quickly became aware of how this type of equipment has the potential to transform the printing and publishing industry," said Kellogg.

MAN's Gold Sponsorship of the Daily Herald's NIE program helps fund an effort begun in 1993. It includes teacher guides on several subjects, with lesson plans and directions, and provides additional products for special events. Newspaper copies come from subscriber donations and partnerships with area businesses. Contributions are coordinated by the Illinois Press Foundation and supported by a Partners in Literacy grant.