Vol 3 Issue 4 • THE GAPP TIMES
Goss packaging innovation recognised with 2014 InterTech Technology Award
G
oss International has again been named among
the recipients of a prestigious InterTech Technology
Award in 2014. While extending a significant track
record of technology achievements, this latest distinction
marks the company’s first major award for innovation in
the packaging sector.
‘This award is particularly gratifying as it establishes
Goss as a true innovator in providing a newprint platform
for the various packaging print sectors as well as in our
more traditional sectors. It also formally acknowledges
successful application in the field with user evidence that
supports the value proposition,’ commented Peter Walc-
zak, Goss International director of product management
for packaging presses.
In order to be considered for a Printing Industries of
America InterTech Technology Award, a technology must
be: commercially available in the marketplace, beyond
beta testing and proven in industrial/commercial appli-
cations. The Goss Sunday Vpak series of presses was
commended by judges for bringing ‘full litho benefits to
packaging’. The panel commented that Vpak technology
presents converters with ‘a new alternative to exploit the
print quality, productivity and lower image cost of theweb
offset process, especially for shorter-run or segmented
folding carton, flexible packaging and label jobs’.
Key differentiators of Vpak presses acknowledged
through the Award include:
Wide web and variable repeat – The application of
Goss patented gapless blankets to the Vpak platform,
along with the development of quick-change plate and
blanket sleeves and a new purpose-designed ink train,
has created the widest (up to 1905mm) and most produc-
tiveweb offset packaging press option currently available
with an infinitely variable repeat range.
Goss-designed blanket sleeves include a ‘white light’
layer below the exterior layer that allow blanket sleeves
with varying external circumference sizes to be usedwith
a single, common blanket adapter sleeve. This means
that the repeat size can have a range of approximately
38.1mmwhich can be achieved with a single set of blan-
ket adapter sleeves, reducing the cost of size changes
significantly and providing a dramatic ROI advantage for
the end user if they choose to use this approach.
Utilising proprietary web transport research and pre-
dictive modeling developed over decades of leadership,
Goss has integrated advanced tension control within the
Vpak presses. Servo-driven motors, minimal web couple
inertia and closed-loopmonitoring and control combine to
ensure stable web dynamics and high print quality for a
full range of film and paper/board packaging substrates,
from 36 gauge film to 30 point board.
The announcement of the award follows closely on
the launch of the Goss Packaging Technology Center at
its headquarters in Durham, New Hampshire (USA). The
Vpak 500 press system in operation at theCenter has sev-
enweb offset units aswell as EB and UV curing and flexo
coating capabilities offering press demonstration, testing
and training sessions for customers and prospects in the
Americas, Europe and Asia. It is also designed as a con-
trolled site for suppliers interested in testing inks, chemi-
cals and auxiliary technologies for web offset production.
G
MG GmbH is celebrating 30 years shaping
the colour management landscape – three
decades ‘converting, standardising, reproduc-
ing, maximising, controlling, sharing and evolving
colour,’ in the words of co-owner Robert Weihing.
It was in 1984 that Robert and brother Joerg
joined the business founded by their father Ewald
Weihing, initially to supply sign-cutting plotters. In
1989 the company expanded into inkjet, buying one
of the first then-revolutionary IRIS 3047 A0-format
inkjet printers, and in this purchase lay the seeds of
the colour management business.
‘Our father had the foresight to see the poten-
tial impact of the IRIS on the signmaking industry,’
recalled Robert. ‘Signmaking was very labour- and
materials-intensive, because you needed a sepa-
rate foil for each layer, but the IRIS could print a
sign in a single pass. One day, however, we printed
an image from a slide and noticed that many of the
browns printed as green. That was when we real-
ised we had to learn about colour management!’
Four years later, the company’s first product, GMG
ColorProof, a proofing and color management solu-
tion for the packaging sector, found a ready market
for its automation of consistent colour reproduc-
tion, especially of spot colours.
ColorProof went on to become an industry
classic and, like other GMG solutions such as
ColorServer and SmartProfiler, can rightly claim
to have redefined the possibilities and extended
the boundaries of colour in the graphic arts. To-
day the company offers a suite of 15 world-class
colour management products, including a number
of award-winners, and has over 11000 solutions
installed worldwide in a wide range of customers
and for a wide variety of applications, from adver-
tising agencies and prepress houses to offset, flexo,
gravure, digital and wide-format printers.
Robert and Joerg Weihing are especially proud
of GMG’s record of continuing to keep pace with
changing trends in graphic arts and develop suc-
cessful solutions for customers. Said Robert, ‘When
we started, proofing was a kind of proprietary world
ruled over by the likes of Cromalin and Matchprint.
The IRIS began to change that. Since 2000 we’ve
seen the transition from expensive, slow continu-
ous-inkjet hardware to fast, much cheaper drop-on-
demand technologies.
‘As our customers’ needs have developed, so
we have expanded our portfolio to serve the dif-
ferent requirements for colour-managed results in
different sectors. Today, our portfolio targets crea-
tive designers or photographers, through agencies
and prepress houses, to printers using traditional
presses or digital output devices. We are now look-
ing forward to another 30 years developing colour
management solutions to help these customers
achieve profitable, efficient production throughout
the value chain, from concept to creation.’
Take a look at GMG’S TrueColors magazine
with interviews and features celebrating 30 years
of GMG evolution:
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fileadmin/user_upload/gmgdata/pdf/true-
Colors/2014_07_TrueColors.pdf
GMG celebrates 30 years at the forefront of colour management
Printed on supplied by
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