In the lead-up to the 2010 IPEX show in Birmingham, England, manroland has been on the hunt to discover who owns the oldest working manroland press in the United Kingdom. The company's Printing Classics campaign, launched last summer, has already revealed some interesting and exciting results!
"The campaign is proving to be a great success and it's great to hear of the high-quality, diverse and demanding work our customers are continuing to produce on a daily basis with their classic manroland presses," explains Norman Revill, managing director, manroland GB. "So far we've had entries from the full spectrum of the printing industry: one customer is using a press that's nearly thirty years old to produce magazine covers and others are using even older presses to print on plastics or apply UV finishes."
Some twenty or so decades-old presses - still in operation - have been discovered since the launch of manroland's Printing Classics campaign. One of the biggest contenders for the top prize was found in Derbyshire, England. Easibind International has a state-of-the-art facility and is well known for innovative printing, particularly in lenticular and plastics. Surprisingly however, the company still operates its 1974 Roland Favorit for one and two colour short run work. The press is a few years shy of four decades old!
"The Roland Favorit has been central to what you might call our 'bread and butter' work since its installation," says Ilann Hepworth of Easibind International. "It's a reliable workhorse of a machine that's in use for around three days a week on a double day shift operation." The Roland press also reportedly has never required any significant maintenance or repairs. "I can't see us ever needing to replace it," continues Hepworth.
In celebration of manroland's more than a century old heritage of developing reliable and quality printing presses, the company says it is awarding a trip for two to Barcelona as the top prize. The winner will be announced at the IPEX show, which runs from 18-25 May.
