RM Machinery announces the installation of the RMGT 1060 LX to Lithographix of Hawthorne, California. The press was installed on an 18-inch raised platform in the company’s 250,000-square-foot facility in December 2023 and has since assumed 70 percent of its sheetfed production.
Established in 1953, Lithographix offers a wide variety of services including print and packaging design, commercial and package printing, folding carton applications, direct mail production, mailing and fulfillment assembly, grand format printing, point-of-purchase display production, warehousing, and inventory management. Its in-house design agency, Rocket Designs, has produced many award-winning projects. As the only printer in Southern California to outperform its competitors in terms of applications, Lithographix opted for the RMGT 1060 LX for its versatility and ability to accommodate quick changeovers, which are made possible by the press’ SimulChanger, an automatic plate-changing and blanket cleaning system that can reduce makeready time by as much as 40 percent. “The SimulChanger is one of the best features of the 1060 LX,” said Ed Binder, president of Lithographix. “We can finish one job and be ready for the next job in as little as ten minutes.”
Another distinctive feature of the RMGT 1060 LX is the press’ ability to accept paper widths of 1060 millimeters (41.73 inches), something that comes in handy when printing 41-inch movie posters for the entertainment industry, a common product for Lithographix along with brochures for the travel, cruise and leisure industries. Additionally, the press is equipped with a new polygon-shaped wheel for slowdown in order to achieve stability when delivering high-volume, blemish-free jobs on any stock up to 1.0 millimeters (40 pt.) thick. Characteristic of the RMGT 1060 LX is also the newly designed automated infeed device, which is engineered to hold down the substrates and automatically adjust the holding pressure based on the stock’s thickness. This allows for fast changeovers when switching from light substrates to heavy boards.
Lithographix also opted for the LED-UV dryer, a curing system that dries sheets quickly and makes them bindery-ready in minimal time, saving energy up to 60 percent. Another popular feature selected by Lithographix was the print quality control system, more commonly known as PQS-D, which detects imperfections, color variations and adjusts registration automatically, shortening makeready time.
Two sheetfed presses were replaced with the RMGT 1060 LX so that Lithographix could perform both commercial print and folding carton applications. With the efficiency of the RMGT 1060 LX, Lithographix will be able to increase capacity by alternating short- and long-run production jobs with a newfound ease. “You name it, and we’ll print it on the LX,” said Binder. “We’re looking forward to expanding our folding carton applications with this press.”
The RMGT brand is definitely an extension of the machines once manufactured by Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses (MLP), according to Binder. As a former press operator with more than 40 years’ experience, Binder is well aware of the reduction in grease he’s attained from the press’ newly designed torsion bar gripper shafts made with sealed bearings. The automatic oiling and greasing of the infeed system has also proved to be a real timesaver. “The press is essentially the same quality as the MLP, but with more automation and more advanced features,” said Binder. “I’m impressed with the gripper shafts and the automatic oiling and greasing. I pretty much fell in love with everything about it. We have very little downtime with this press and the cost of ownership has been phenomenal.”
It wasn’t just the quality of the RMGT press that sold the team at Lithographix on the 1060 LX; Binder found RM Machinery to be very accommodating. “RM treats us like a real business partner,” said Binder. “They’re very easy to work with.”
Binder joined Lithographix in March 2019 as its vice president of business development. He became president when the company transitioned to a 100 percent employee-owned company in January 2024. Lithographix is currently the largest privately held company in the West and employs 245 individuals.
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