Pressroom Attachments and Accessories

Press Attachments Are Add-Ons That IncreaseProductivity For Your Customers....
BUT TO EARN THE "BUCKS" YOU NEED TO BE CREATIVE AND YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE BENEFITS ARE FOR THE CUSTOMERS MAKING THE PURCHASE

Read These Interviews For Insights from dealers, printers, manufacturers and service & repair people
This column wraps up opinions offered by these four major groups in the printing industry about the sale and/or use of press attachments and accessories.

They agree on one point, namely, because of high speed digital printing systems, small printers are searching for ways to reengineer their businesses, by adding services, and getting their existing equipment to do more. At this date, press attachments are helping all companies in the food-chain. For printers, press attachments get jobs out faster and reduce manual labor. For dealers, attachments bring in money and open doors to print shops that have been held tightly closed to them in the past. For service and repair people, it's a lot easier to recommend an attachment since they're trusted to keep printing presses in top performance.

Dealers

From Paul Rawls of AZA Graphics Ltd Inc in Miami, FL
My company deals with an export market: South America-particularly Venezuela. Therefore, we have customers who continue to buy presses-and my company is doing great business! At the risk of boring DC readers, let me list the sorts of attachments and accessories that we sell: bundlers, strappers, dampening systems, updated ink-fountain replacements, devices that cut make-ready time, pressroom densitometers, and counters. We provide service as part of our sale, especially when we're dealing with installation; and there is a fee.

From Ken McCallum of Canadian Printing Equipment in Winnipeg, MB Overall, I'd have to say that printers in my area are buying far fewer presses. The small printers are gone or have consolidated. Digital seems to have wiped them out. We sell attachments and accessories, like dampening systems, drying systems, anti-marking and anti-static devices, envelope feeders, pressroom densitometers, and devices that reduce make-ready time. Of course we provide service: we have our own techs. And there is a charge for their activities. (And I'd certainly enjoy being in Florida at this time of the year...)

From Don Grimm of Graphic Equipment & Supplies in Amarillo, TX
Printers are buying fewer presses these days; only the larger printers have been able to survive this downturn of the economy: many of the small companies no longer exist. However, let me add quickly that printers no longer have to buy press attachments or accessories: they're already a part of their new presses. With regard to fees for service, anything past warranty is charged a fee for my service.

From David Breen of Bay Press Services in Hayward, CA
Sad to say, printers in this area are buying fewer presses. Why? There's been a downturn in the economy for quite some time; the advent of digital copiers has reduced the need for traditional printing services (and therefore presses); and printing jobs are being sent overseas. Sounds a bit negative-right? I believe new presses already include the attachments and accessories that printers have been buying separately. We've added CTP and digital copiers to our product mix.

From Bill Pruegert of Printing Equipment Inc in Oklahoma City, OK
Around here in the Oklahoma City area, there seems to be an increase in the sale of high-end presses and a decrease in the sale of "traditional" presses. Printers are buying more pressroom attachments; this we know for sure because we sell dampening systems, pressline systems, in-line perforating devices, anti-marking and anti-static devices (but just a few of these two types of attachments)-and I suspect I may have forgotten others. We haven't added new product lines though we do sell the Duplo Systems. And for the past couple of years, we sell carbonless paper and making a great go of it!

From Ed Haight of Haight Brothers in Spokane, WA
Printers in our territory (Eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana) are losing customers to high speed copiers-and there are some printers who have bought copiers to do their small jobs! I don't think that printers are buying more attachments, but I have to admit that there are more types of attachments available. Because we've been in business 56 years, we sell just about every kind of pressroom attachment and the laundry list is long: dampening systems, drying systems, infrared dryers, anti-marking and anti-static devices, updated ink fountain replacements, envelope feeders, devices that reduce make-ready time, densitometers, spray guns, auxiliary rollers, aqua-coding systems, and counters-but no in-line perforating devices! We provide service through our own techs but offer no service contracts. Our most recent new-product line is our aqua-coding system (which I mentioned earlier). Why? Because the small printers in our area had none and needed one. We're trying to help our customers as much as possible, so we've added these unexpected services to our panoply: a knife-grinding service which sharpens hollow and flat blades 96" long (to take care of the cutters we sell), a machine shop that does custom repair on obsolete equipment, and a crane truck that reaches 60' high. We do all of this for our customers in three states. We may not be all things to all men, but we are versatile.

Press-Service & Repair Companies

From Susan Axelrod of Advance Printers Machine Shop
Business has been stable, so we're doing the same number of repairs now as we did during the past five years-but fewer than we did ten years ago. In a nutshell, we manufacture nylon rollers for printing machines only and we repair all pressroom equipment and do any necessary welding. Let me add that printers are buying more press attachments.

From Len Allocco of Best Grafix
The only reason why printers are calling on me less these days for press maintenance is simple: many printers have closed their shops. Otherwise, I'm as busy as usual with the printers still in business. With 32 years' experience under my belt, I'm able to repair most anything that needs it-presses, of course, cutters, folders, as well as attachments. The best way to describe my work is to say that I'm a doctor who makes house calls. Furthermore, I always call back a week later to ask my "patients" if all is OK. Fortunately, printers are still buying press attachments such as water systems, counter units, tabbers, and blue cylinder, so they'll keep me in business a long time.

From Jackie Kisiloski of PDS (Pressdown Services Inc)
Briefly, printers these days are calling us more to do maintenance on their machines. Printers really need us if they're working with small offset (few press repairmen still do that sort of repair these days). We've expanded our capacities for repair work because we've increased our "knowledge." From what we have experienced, printers are buying more attachments, for example, dampening systems, airspray systems, and envelope feeders.

Manufacturers

From Mike Scaglione of Kompac (Div of Day Int'l)
For sure, printers are no longer buying as many new conventional presses as they did in the past, but what they're now doing is buying attachments that make their older presses more productive. There are many kinds of newer attachments, but the one that seems trendy now is the attachment that will allow the printer to do coating. Kompac at this time is not selling attachments for digital but is packaging attachments (to be sold through a dealer) only for the conventional press. But who knows what tomorrow may bring....

From Terrance Clark of TAKK Industries in Cincinnati, OH
The printers I refer to below are those in the mid-range. If they buy attachments it's because they're trying to go beyond the traditional goal of printing. Let me give you an example. Box making takes a flat sheet, it gets printed and die cut and in some cases folded. In some cases, attachments are added to produce the total final product. By the way the same holds true for commercial printing. Attachments, like the products we manufacture, are added to allow printers to offer more at more competitive prices. My company has been manufacturing and selling-perhaps forever-the following three items: antistatic cord, antistatic brush, and antistatic tinsel bar. To me, it seems that those three attachments are appropriate and inexpensive for the fiscal climate we're now in.

From Jerry Whippie of Litho-O-Roll Corp in El Monte, CA
It does seem that printers are buying more attachments to make their presses do more than before. We are "indirectly" selling attachments for digital printing systems: we sell pick-up suckers.

From Eugene Barisonek of Soneko IR Inc in Roseto, PA
Of course, printers will always try to find attachments to make their old presses do a lot more than they were originally designed to do. We manufacture high-intensity lights to help dry printed product. These driers (lamps) can be bought as completed units or as we do, supply the printer with the materials to build their own drying systems. To answer your question about providing attachments for the digital arena, we are selling attachments for digital systems-or for any system that need driers.

From Margaret Bain of Accel Graphic Systems in Dallas, TX
We're still in the business of making attachments and selling them; to us, that means printers are still buying attachments. We don't manufacture any kind of attachment for digital printing systems. What we do sell are dryers, dampeners, spray-powder systems, and ink-management systems. Comparing sales during each of the past five years, we offer good news and thanks to the dealer channel: Our sales of attachments have increased!

From David Allison of W-R Industries Inc in Chicago, IL
Without a doubt printers are buying more press attachments than before. We can judge that from our sales of anti-offset powder used in spray systems. Digital is not our market at this time, but we may in the future develop a system or supply product for digital systems.

Printers

From Robert C. Schaeffer of Schaeffer's Printing Inc in Bridgeton, MO
From what I have seen, printers are not buying more press attachments and accessories in order to make their presses do more than ever before. I've been in business 23 years, and the most recent attachment that I've bought is a water fountain. I doubt seriously if I'm going to buy anything more: business is somewhat slow these days.

From Randy Hooper of Hooper Printing Co. in Norman, OK
Printers are definitely buying attachments these days. Some time ago we purchased a powder spray rig; our most recent purchases, however, were swing-away T-heads and a 2-color common blanket. We've not bought anything recently.

From Tony Fernandez of Albuquerque Printing Co in Albuquerque, NM
I agree with your publication's (Dealer Communicator) belief that printers are now buying more press attachments and accessories. Our most recent purchases are recorders. Unfortunately, we're not planning additional purchases at this time. We've been in business 25 years; even so, it's never easy to stay in business-especially in these challenging times.

From Robert Ferdon of Sanders Printing Co in Pontiac, MI
I've worked for this company 4 years. Their most recent purchase during this time was an envelope feeder. It, plus an envelope conveyor and a roll-up thermography machine, have been the only attachments to our presses. I don't think the owners are planning to buy anything more at this time. Nevertheless, competing printers that I know are buying press attachments and accessories.

From Doug Hansen of NW Printing in Fargo, ND
We do believe that printers are buying more press attachments in order to make their old presses do more than ever before. We have here only one attachment: a two-color head. We're not planning at this time to purchase a new attachment. (Editors Note: DEALERS... HERE'S A SALE OPPORTUNITY WAITING TO HAPPEN!!)

CONCLUSION.... THREE THINGS.
(1) Do you realize the editorial above is actually a DEALER NETWORKING SESSION IN PRINT. Think about it. Dealers get insights from other dealers who sell the same kinds of equipment and/or supply products.

(2) Where do they network? At conferences sponsored by NAGASA, AIMED, BTA, PESDA and by other dealer associations. And where else???? In DEALER COMMUNICATOR.

(3) There are "BUCKS" out there to be made. Take a lesson from McDonalds. When a burger is sold, the server asks: "WANT FRIES WITH THAT?"

If you'd like to comment: editor@dealercommunicator.com.