Analysis

It’s a tough time to be a B1 printer. The sector is being squeezed from above and below with both large-format and B2 printers competing for a slice of the B1 pie. However, manufacturers and printers alike have far from abandoned this highly competitive sector and a raft of new technologies, designed to improve production efficiency and add value, are helping those prepared to invest to stay ahead.

According to B1 press manufacturers, the key to success in the B1 market lies in faster make­readies and efficient production. Heidel­berg UK sales director Jim Todd says printers “are trying to get more, for less”.

“The dynamics of print are changing and run lengths are getting shorter. These are the forces at work and more jobs are ending up on B1 presses,” he says.

This includes short- to medium-run work, which are now viable on a B1 press thanks to the makeready advances of recent years.

Christian Knapp, managing director of KBA UK, is equally optimistic about the future of the sector. “The market is being driven by printers’ demands for efficiency improvements. People want to put more through their presses,” he says.

Adding value
If efficient production is one foundation for success in the B1 sector, then equally important is adding value. As with any heavily commoditised marketplace, in B1 it pays to have your niche, be it UV printing, specialised finishing, or any of a raft of ‘above-and-beyond’ services that might serve to get a customer locked in.

Bob Usher, joint managing director of Apex Digital Graphics believes that B1 is “a unique market” as a result of these market forces. “It’s become a market of specialised printers,” he says.

However, while adding value should pay in the long-run, it costs money to set up. Still, it’s not just investing for investment’s sake, according to Gary Doman, MAN Rol­and sheetfed sales director. “Adding value is important. Offering additional effects and finishes can help printers develop niche markets or to kill off the competition.”

For the press manufacturers, the B1 market is at least as competitive as it is for their customers, but they are busy developing the next generation of faster, more efficient presses.

Todd says: “While doom and gloom merchants are all around, in my experience, our customers have been remarkably busy, more than one would expect. Negative sentiments aren’t currently reflected by our customers.”

Knapp adds: “We are all under extreme market pressures at the moment and the way that manufacturers can help is by making machines more efficient, allowing printers to carry out more work and, ultimately, make more money.”

Under threat
The problem is that competition is no longer coming solely from other B1 printers. “There is more pressure on B1 than any other market. All of the other formats can draw work away from it,” says Doman. “Large-format is clearly a threat. It offers a higher pagination and fewer sections, which equates to greater efficiency.”

Knapp agrees that the pressure on B1 is severe and argues that super-sizing could offer a way out for the embattled printer who’s looking to invest. “B1 printers are under threat from both smaller and larger formats. To escape the competitiveness they should move into large-format,” he says.

Whether the money goes on the latest B1 technology or a move into large-format, the bottom line is the same: investment is key. In fact, Usher believes the greatest threat to B1 printers is not keeping up-to-date with technology and thereby failing to be competitive.

“The printers using kit that is 10 or 15 years old are struggling,” he says. “The focus now is on make­ready times: companies need to be more efficient. If you are more efficient, then you can quote more aggressively.

“We are seeing younger people investing and killing off the older generation that has yet to em­­brace the new technology.”

Adding value and improving production efficiencies are paramount to driving B1 press sales and the success of the print houses buying them. Of course, Heidelberg, KBA, Ryobi and MAN Roland are not alone in developing technologies to achieve these aims.

While each manufacturer has taken a different approach, all agree that cutting down on makeready is key to success.

“I believe makeready automation is the most significant development we’ve seen. It cuts the time to make­ready with simultaneous plate change and results in a more efficient operation,” says KBA’s Knapp.

Todd considers Heidel­berg’s Prinect Inpress Control a major step in the right direction: “Once the plates are loaded, you start running and the press brings itself into register and colour.”

Manufacturers continue to invest in B1, which, in turn, is helping printers in the sector get more from their presses, increase their workload and, ultimately, make more money. But pressure on B1 continues to grow, it is becoming increasingly competitive and other formats will claw as much work from the market as possible. B1 manufacturers are sure the sector can remain viable, but only time will tell for certain.

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NEW B1 TECHNOLOGY
• Goss M-600 a newly designed VITS sheeter that can sheet the outcoming web, without the need for a dryer, allows this web press to output up to 30,000sph
• Ryobi 1050 Unveiled in February, launching at Drupa and shipping from next year, Ryobi’s foray into B1 offers speeds of 16,000sph and semi-automatic plate changing
• Mitsubishi Diamond V3000 Boasting more than 80 makeready and production improvements and offering 16,200sph, the V3000 will be on show Drupa
• Heidelberg Inpress Control Launched last year, the on-press closed-loop colour measurement system brings the press into register and colour once the plates are stacked
• MAN Roland 700 DirectDrive Launched in 2007 on all units, this 17,000sph press offers simultaneous plate changing