A Texas company plans to introduce a flexographic press aimed at smaller and mid-sized newspapers later this year.

Press rebuild vendor Tech-Energy Co. said its single-wide, two-around shaftless press will be attractive to publishers looking for alternatives to offset printing.

The press, yet to be named, will undergo a months-long trial at The Recorder, a 30,000-subscriber daily in Greenfield, Mass. Tech-Energy President John E. Pickard said he hopes to begin selling the press to customers later this year, with first deliveries in early 2004.

MacDermid Printing Solutions unit Napp Systems Inc. will market the press, Pickard said.

The press, capable of being configured in a four-high design, has a capacity of 50,000 copies per hour and will be equipped with a jaw folder for newspaper and commercial work. Tech-Energy will subcontract out the construction of the press but will perform final assembly and quality control at its San Antonio-area headquarters.

“We see the quality that can be produced with a flexo press and we also see a demand among publishers for presses that are simpler to operate,” Pickard said, explaining why Tech-Energy is entering the new press market.

Flexography has won kudos for its print quality and its simpler and more environmentally friendly printing process.

Many production directors fret about the high cost of polymer plates needed to support flexography and the fact that plate supply is controlled by a single vendor.

Yet Pickard said he believes there is a growing amount of demand by publishers wanting single-width alternatives to prevailing offset technology.

“We will differentiate because we won’t build an offset press,” he said. “There is a certain market trying to do newspapers and commercial (work) and this press will give them the flexibility to do both.”

Pricing is still being determined, although Pickard said the press would be priced competitively against comparable single-wide offset systems.