International Security Printers

Back in October, I was privileged to be the only philatelist at the royal opening of the new stamp printing factory of ISP in Wolverhampton, UK by Her Majesty The Queen and Prince Phillip.

I have produced an article on the subject, which is in the January 2015 issue of Gibbons Stamp Monthly [UK] and in French within the December 2014 issue of L'Echo de la Timbrologie [FRA], if you have access.

You will realise that copyright precludes my inclusion of the article here, but I can state that the new gravure press is an Italian Cerruti and their new Apollo inspection system is something to behold! GLENN

Glenn,

I have a preliminary agreement with the representative of the Dutch PostNL to visit together with him the new premises in Wolverhampton in the early months of 2015!

It is good to know already that they have a Cerutti gravure press - How many colours? More than on the Chesnuts?

best wishes, Rein

That must have quite an honour to be there with the Queen.
There is actually a very short video clip on line about HM visit.
http://on.aol.ca/video/queen-offici...rs-518488945
Are you on it by chance?

According to info on your website this International Security Printers




I tell you it's hard to keep track any more of who owns
who.

Concerning this new Cerruti gravure press I thought that
photogravure was basically finished when it comes to printing stamps
and anything else for that matter.
I mean even leaving stamp printing aside, the majority of newspapers,periodicals,books,
magazines, advertisement flyers, labels, packaging and even banknotes are printed via offset presses.

I read that Koenig & Bauer AG in 2007 sold all its
intellectual property rights (know-how, industrial designs and patents) relating to rotogravure printing presses
to Cerruti.
It appears that KBA figured it was the right time to get out
of the gravure press business.

Glenn perhaps you could confirm this for me.
In this article http://www.expressandstar.com/news/...lverhampton/ of the Queens visit to Wolverhampton it states




180 countries. WOW, Checking on the internet there are anywhere between 189 to 196 countries in the word depending on the source.
I just can't believe that ISP claim.

Rein, it is a ten unit gravure press, model R981. The [old] Chesnut's did not move across to the new premises. You will enjoy your visit, for sure!

Lithograving, No I am not in the video (or any of the official photographs - but I was there, honestly!)

The claim of printing for 180 countries is certainly quoted by ISP. Indeed, I mention it in my article and this had been approved by ISP before publication. Don't forget, though, they have printed stamps for precisely 50 years at Walsall and 40 years (in 2015) at Cartor, and they may be including their Courvoisier purchase, which would certainly boost the numbers as they had printed stamps since 1931.

Incidentally, the quote that 60% of ISP sales go overseas that you mention is out of date, for it is now 70% of sales, as stated in my article.

Finally, gravure is still "the process of choice" for Britain's Royal Mail, which might have influenced ISPs choice of press type....but this is not based on any knowledge, simply a suggestion on my part.

GLENN

Glenn I just found an article of yours from
the BRITISH PHILATELIC BULLETIN August 2009
75 years of GB stamps by photogravure




www.stampprinters.info/75photo.pdf

After I read it right away I remembered your thread here.
So now you have it, photogravure is still Royal Mail's favourite
printing process and HRM gave her blessing.

Lithograving: Yes, gravure is still the "process of choice" and after five years since writing the article that you reference, litho seems to be used for the smaller print runs (generally printed at Cartor) and gravure for the longer runs (booklets and the like, at Wolverhampton), plus DLRs output of course.

It will be interesting over time to see the impact that the Cerutti press at ISP has on British production methods and processes used for it is so fast and accurate that it prints 18 million postage stamps in booklet format (with both sides of the booklet printed) every single hour. GLENN