Our latest Tool Black, Royce Richards, heads to Calgary next year to represent New Zealand and compete at the World Skills games. Richards made it this far working on a Ryobi
In the October issue of New Zealand Printer, PrintNZ Training featured Royce Richards. At that stage he had won the regional and New Zealand sections of World Skills. Since then, his selection for the Tool Blacks has focused more attention on his work on the Ryobi 252 HXX press at Christchurch’s Rainbow Print.Graeme Duncan, director Rainbow Print, takes pains to avoid credit for Richard’s success, saying, “It’s about the work he’s done on the press.” Unselfishly, Duncan praises Chaucer Press, where Richards began his apprenticeship and which Rainbow Print acquired earlier this year. He says, “Royce came to us from Chaucer, and he quickly adapted and learned how to put the Ryobi to good use.”
Richards agrees that he picked up on the Ryobi 525HXX quickly but remarks that the machine’s design allows users to make rapid progress with it. He says, “I learned most of it in about a week. It’s quick to set up and it’s easy to operate.”
Phrases like ease of operation and user friendly get thrown about so much these days that they lose some of their currency but, in the case of the Ryobi, Duncan insists the machine easily qualifies for such comparisons. He says, “The Ryobi has a tremendous ability to print and to print a lot. Its rolling power is a feature. It has the capability to carry more power and more ink without excessive dot gain. The double diameter cylinders make a huge difference. We get a much more vibrant print”
For the World Skill competition, Richards found the five-colour press gave him exactly what he needed. He says, “The infra red drier made a big difference, better than conventional drying with heat lamps. Overall the Ryobi is better because it’s so automated, the ink profile is automatically programmed so that saves time. The automation impressed me because it’s six years old.” The press also has an inline densitometer that connects straight to the ink ducts for continuous monitoring of the colour. The image area ratio for each printing unit is displayed in a graph, allowing operators to easily check the data. The effective use of the press data can significantly reduce the labour involved in adjusting the ink fountain keys prior to production printing.
Other factors that contribute to the press’s ease of operation include the in-house maintenance and cleanliness that Rainbow insists on with its machines.
Shane Kinniburgh of PMP judged and attended Royce at Rainbow Print on the WorldSkills job. Impressed by the standard of the job produced by Royce, Kinniburgh remarked that the job carried the most film weight against dot gain. The achievable target of 15 per cent dot gain was easily achieved. The fact that this was done on a press that is six years old is testament to the standard in which Rainbow Print keep their presses.
David Taylor, general manager Cyber New Zealand, says “On the latest range of Ryobi presses, Ryobi confidently predict that if the sheet run is only 200 sheets, then 10 jobs an hour can be completed. That’s due to the sophistication of the equipment, being able to produce the job almost at will. Makeready times are kept down to a minimum.”
Last month, Taylor travelled around New Zealand with Mr N Tsukamoto of the Ryobi Group. Mr Tsukamoto, who presented Richards with a Hagoita, a traditional Japanese figure that signifies the keeping way of evil spirits. Cyber presented Richards with an eyeglass.
Mr Tsukamoto received copies of Richard’s competition printspec summary. This sheet, a printout of a computer analysis of the job printed, is so sophisticated it leaves nothing to guess work. It’s so precise that it even measures the white paper before it is printed on. Taylor says, “PrintNZ purchased the unit that measures the specs of the summary, at great cost. It allows our New Zealand printers to participate in the World skills competition.” Mr Tsukamoto will show the printspec summary sheets to his colleagues at Ryobi.
