Setting up Continuous Form Printing

Work your way down through the 'Edit' Menu

Edit > Settings and Defaults

• Go to Material Categories and add Paper (Continuous Forms)

Edit > Cost Centers

• Add a press cost center and populate fields as usual

Edit > Cost Materials

• Add paper manually to the 'Paper (Continuous Forms)' paper category. Paper should have dimensions of 1000 x [Width of Reel]
• Add special ink if necessary

Edit > Ink Groups

• Add special ink group if special inks are used

Edit > Services

• Add any finishing items associated with the press (including Cross Perfing, Die Cutting Down Perfing, Numbering etc.), and link it to the Press's cost center and name them [Press name] - [Service name]

Edit > Presses and Printing

• Add a press to the list and name it "[Press Name] [Cylinder Diameter]" where 'Cylinder Diameter' is the diameter of one of the cylinders supported by the press. If for example you're setting up a 'Drent Goebel' and you're working with a 17 inch cylinder, the full name of the press should be 'Drent Goebel 17'
• Under Pre-Press add any default or group specific pre-press items (eg. Plate-Making).
• Under Running Options add "Run" and populate as just like on a normal Litho Press for sheetwork (see below for an example).

Speed (Sheets/Hr) can be calculated from the Meters/Hr by the following formula.

Speed (Sheets/Hr) = [Cylinder Speed (Meters/Minute)] X 60 / [Sheet Depth (Meters)]

For example, if the press is set up for a 17 inch cylinder which runs at 200 meters/minute, then Speed would be calculated as follows:

Speed (Sheets/Hr) = [Cylinder Speed (Meters/Minute)] X 60 (Minutes) / [Sheet Depth (Meters)]

= 200 Meters/Minute X 60 Minutes/Hour / 17 Inches

= 12000 Meters/Hour / (17 inches X 25.4 mm/inch)

= 12000 Meters/Hour / (4318 mm / 1000 mm/Meter)

= 12000 Meters/Hour / 0.4318 Meters

= 27790 Sheets / Hour

There can obviously be no work and turn/tumble option for continuous presses.

• For each cylinder diameter that the physical press supports copy the press you have just created. So if for example if the press' name is 'Drent Goebel', and it supports 17, 22 and 24 inch cylinders and you have already created a 17 inch press copy it to the following presses:
  • Drent Goebel 22
  • Drent Goebel 24
• Continuing from the example just mentioned, for each new press go into the running options and recalculate the Speed (Sheet/Hour)

Edit > Sections

• Add new customized sections for each common width that the client wishes to have and name appropriately. The depth will always be a multiple of the cylinder circumference used since the plate is butted up i.e. the top of the image area on the plate wraps around to the bottom of the image area on the plate to form a cylinder.
• If a 22 inch (560 mm) cylinder is used for example, valid section depths would be:

• 280 mm because 2 X 280 = 560 mm. Here you would get 2 forms out of a single impression.
• 93.33 mm because 3 X 93.33 mm = 560 mm. Here you would get 3 forms out of a single impression.
• 140 mm because 4 X 140 mm = 560 mm. Here you would get 4 forms out of a single impression.

• Link the section to the press with a cylinder circumference which is a multiple of the section depth. For example, if we have 17, 22 and 24 inch cylinders set up, then a section with a depth of 140 mm (11 inches) could only be linked to a 22 inch cylinder because 11 doesn't perfectly fit into 17 or 24 without a remainder.
• Finally add any finishing items (eg. collating) to the section.