In the domestic U.S. market, there are more than 25,000 commercial printers. There are three basic processes: offset, letterpress, and gravure. The vast majority of commercial printing is done via the long-run web-offset and shorter-run sheet-fed offset press. For the longer-run magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and other forms of commercial print, the web press will most often deliver printed pieces called signatures at the rate of 40,000 to 80,000 signatures per hour. A signature is typically in increments of four on a smaller press and sixteen on the larger ones. The web press is fed by large paper rolls, usually on a device that permits the press to add new rolls while on the fly. The signatures are then dried in ovens at the end of the press, folded on the press by a folder, and delivered in folded signatures to stackers that place the finished pages on a skid at the end of the press, ready for binding. The signatures are then delivered to a metal stitching machine or a glue perfect binder. The magazine or catalog is then either stitched (with metal staples) or glued (called perfect binding) and trimmed to the 8" by 10 1/2"size of the completed piece. The sheet-fed press is fed into the multiple color printing units by large sheets that are then delivered as flat sheets. Placed on skids to permit them to dry, they must be folded off line on a separate folding unit and then cut to deliver the final printed size. Most of the 25,000 commercial printers have these types of presses to serve the shorter-run markets of the smaller advertiser, direct mailer, publishers, and retailers.

Contributed By:

Terry Tevis
President
TATevis & Company