proofpress.ch

Today Mr. Orville of FAG Lausanne visited me at my studio! He also delivered my new rollers for the FAG Control 900. What a service!

The old rollers had some injured spots so I had to replace them at some time. I am very happy to ink the new ones for the first time soon. Since these rollers are very large (almost 1m wide) and heavy I decided to wait until I would go and pick them up in Lausanne myself or Mr. Orville would find time to visit me at my studio. Of course I was very happy to give him the tour!

As a part of my contribution to keep FAG proof presses alive I felt it was important to create a little platform to share FAG related equipment for sale or for trade. I am not selling this stuff personally, but just listing to share contacts of sellers. If anyone is interested in selling a press, please write an email to Dafi Kühne. Notice: Please do not send me any requests for equipment. I am not selling FAG printing presses or related equipment on a regular base and I dont take responsibilty for any of the offered goods.

In this new section «Equipment for sale» you'll find FAG proof presses and related equipment for sale.

Thanks for that very interesting registration of the three FAG proof presses at «edition carpe plumbum»! Thomas Siemon did a great job on documenting his Control 839, Control 525 and Standard TP-510. It looks like a very nice printing studio!

Check out his registration here.

Since I was talking about the OP-104 flatbed offset proof press yesterday I just wanted to give you some images on how this machine looks like, since there is no full overview in yesterday's video.

According to Mr. Orville at FAG Lausanne, the FAG OP-104 would have cost arount 100'000 Swiss Franks back then. They made several updates to that first version seen on the images. Also a hover crafted transportation system for the interchangeable inking units!

Please also notice all the nice and shiny letterpress proof presses in the back of image 2 ! They make my knees trembling.

FAG did not only make letterpress cylinder proof presses but also flatbed offset proof presses. Already in 1972 (the same year they developed the Swiss Proof Presses!) they released their first offset proof press: The ‹FAG Offsetpress 7654›. In 1977 they released the bigger ‹FAG OP-104›, a 4.5 meters long, 3.5 tons heavy flatbed offset proof press in that could fit 70x100cm sheets. The press came with two interchangeable complete inking units including its motors and wash-up units. This inking system made 4 color proofs much easier and faster to handle, since the time consuming washing of there rollers is carried out outside the press. This massive press was a big success and sold to all five continents until the late 80ies.

New quality control tools and the first inkjet proof systems made the use of more expensive offset proofs obsolete and so FAG moved its efforts towards quality control in the aspect of all kinds of densitometers for offset production presses.

The point where this chapter about FAG offset proof presses ends is the point where the story of ‹Big FAG Press› in Sydney begins… In 2004 four artists from Sidney could buy an old FAG OP-104 for the nominal value of $50 at an auction.

They say on their webpage: «In 2004, one unfortunate printer in Sydenham (an inner-Sydney suburb) didn’t see this change coming, and went bust. The liquidation auction was very sad. Nobody wanted his equipment despite the large number of print professionals in the room. Instead, they just picked over the carcasses of his office furniture. Having received a tip off from our local Master Printer, Jens Hausch, Big Fag Press attended the auction and placed the winning (and only) bid on the big beautiful FAG 104 Offset Proof Press. Our bid was fifty dollars.»

You can see in the video that the offset plate is on the right side – laying flat. Then the cylinder (including the watering system and some ink rollers) rolls over the plate to the right side. With this process the rubber blanket on the cylinder picks up the ink. On its way back the rubber blanket applies the ink to the sheet laying flat on the left side. You can also see that the offset plate is not mirrored – of course, it's offset! And even the guy in the video says: «Its magic!»

Until now, the www.proofpress.ch Webpage is limited to registrations of letterpress proof presses – but maybe soon be opened to studios/artists working with FAG flatbed offset proof presses…
 

Please visit the webpage of our brothers in mind in Sydney and read the rest of their story...

Markus Müller about the Buchatelier MM, Bubendorf: «The Bookatelier Markus and Birgit is located in Bubendorf, Switzerland. Here we create exclusive, one of a kind books und special prints and papers. Our products are artistic treasures, which are inspirational and pleasing to the eye.»

Thanks for registering!

See the registration of Buchatelier MM here

John Cornelisse from the Enkidu-Press in The Netherlands contacted me some time ago about ‹The biggest FAG proof press› he has ever seen was in Poland – it should be something like a 85 x 115cm maximum printing form. He also gave me the email address of Pawel Tryzno, the owner of this press.

First I was kind of confused since the biggest model according to FAG Lausanne was the Control 900 – which has a maximum form size of 64 x 90cm. So I contacted Pawel & Jadwiga Tryzno of the ‹Muzeum Ksiazki Artystycznej› in Lodz, Poland. They sent me an image of that very huge press. And to my disbelief it was actually labeled with FAG.

The model didn't look too much like a FAG press – but still the only label found on it was a FAG. So I contacted Mr. Orville (General Manager at FAG Lausanne) and Mr. Grebien (Former Chief Engineer at FAG Manufactury Avenches) and they both confirmed that this was a Korrex press (Max Simmel Werk, Germany). So how come that this press was labeled as a FAG?
 
Mr. Grebien told me that FAG once had a deal with Korrex that if someone would order a press that had to be bigger than the FAG Control 900, they would deliver a Korrex Hamburg Kraft (thats the name of this model) and label it with a FAG plaquette. Ha!

I made this new category ‹FAG under licence› – see the registration of Pawel Tryzno's press here