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While the people who make presses exchanged barbs and snipes during a Friday-morning SuperConference session, the group of five shaped one clear message: Press builders are battling over technologies, adaptable architecture and more as they try to meet the promise of print quality and speed.
Shaftless technology, keyless presses, whether it's best to manufacture every component of the newspaper-printing process -- all came under scrutiny in one of the conference's most lively exchanges during the Press and Materials "Press Industry Outlook" session.
Peter Kuisle, director of web sales worldwide for MAN Roland Inc., said press builders have overcome the doldrums of the early '90s when the market for new presses dropped by 40 percent from the late 1980s.
"You see this happen in other industries and companies are not there," he said.
And the question that remains, Kuisle added, is which company will be the first to drop from what became a party of five after Heidelberg made a long-anticipated commitment to the newspaper industry at the SuperConference Thursday by announcing its Mainstreet 80 press.
"We don't think this industry can continue with this number of vendors," said Joe Ondras, vice president of sales for Maschinenfabrik WIFAG. He directly challenged Heidelberg and other press builders by questioning "this effort to be all things to all people." His company, Ondras asserted, has one big advantage over all others: "WIFAG has no debt," he said.
Staying out front on technology is not a question as the new century begins, he said, it is the only question. "If you have the financial wherewithal you can do that," Ondras said. "If not, it's catch-up baseball."
Goss Graphic Systems Vice President for Sales Alex Brnilovich said his company, which has a historic lead in press equipment in the U.S., is poised "for recovery in U.S. operations" and is prepared to join the technological battleground now developing.
Mike Shafer, national sales manager for TKS (USA) Inc., said his company is facing the challenges of Asia's flacid economy. The company has a strong backlog "and is able to weather" the economy, he said. People out to buy press equipment should evaluate a company not just on its technological innovations but on its ability to bring together high-tech components. Shafer touted his company's efforts to build the best press by using the best components. Doing so has many advantages, he said, including the fact that a newspaper doesn't have to turn to one supplier for all of its parts.
Mark J. Levin, vice president of sales for Heidelberg Web Press, said all press makers have learned that "beyond being open architecture, you have to be open-minded."
And he said press builders know one other fact as 2000 nears. The days when a press isn't pre-tested before it arrives on your operation floor are over.
"The market can't survive prototyping in your facility," he said.
--by Bob Sims