In the past week, Japanese press manufacturer Komori Corporation announced that it has developed the Lithrone GX/G advance series, which the company says are self-learning sheetfed offset presses. The presses are an answer to the increase in short-runs and the need to decrease human resources on the shop floor. Improvements from loading to moving printed sheets to folders and cutting machines will use a robot. The idea is to increase automated handling of sheets between the Apressia cutting machines, the Komori press, and MBO folders.
The company planned to show the Lithrone GX/G advance series of B1 presses at drupa, now postponed to April 2021. It will now show them at open houses, virtual events, and webinars. The Lithrone GX/G advance series presses make it possible to attain high productivity and quality through a more effortless operation. There has been a significant improvement in the high-speed stability of the feeder and delivery, which provide the underlying performance of a press, Komori said.
The Lithrone GX/G advance press also has improved suitability for high-speed, long-run printing, while the performance of Komorimatic, which is a key to high print quality, is unchanged. Also, there has been a reduction of touchpoints by using a self-learning function and a new control platform for the linkage of high-level printing systems.
Komori says that by optimizing the dampening system, the minimum-water Komorimatic, dot quality sharpness, and stability is maintained while suitability for high speed/long-run printing is improved. The linkage with various mechatronics devices that maintain quality from print start-up to the end of the job is centered on KHS-AI, which handles overall control and an easy-to-view operation screen.
Automated press set-up, postpress and MIS
In addition, Komori provides collaboration with its KP-Connect solution cloud, enabling the smart factory concept, including MIS, prepress, and postpress. The cloud-based collaborative solution is based on Komori’s Connected Automation concept. By connection with the KP-Connect Pro solution cloud, job data can be sent to the press by direct presets.
“This realizes strengthened collaboration and optimization between processes and high-level automation with presets based on information from high-end systems, thus contributing to productivity improvement throughout the entire printing process,” the company said.
The Lithrone GX/G advance presses are claimed to obtain a significantly higher ROI than with the conventional Lithrone. Komori asserts that the ease of use with operator skill further minimized, the improved feeder and delivery, performance stability at high speeds with minimal losses will spell overall improvement in productivity.
Orders for the new presses, the Lithrone GX40 advance, Lithrone G40 advance, Lithrone GX40RP advance, and Lithrone G37P advance models will be accepted beginning on 1 October 2020. The lineup of models will be successively expanded. The presses will be distributed in India through Komori India headquartered in Faridabad in the Delhi NCR.
