MAN Roland

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MAN Roland is a German sheetfed and web press manufacturer. MAN is an abbreviation for Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (German: Machine Works of Augsburg and Nürnberg). Full company name: MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG.

The company traces its roots back to Rudolf Diesel, who invented, tested and produced his famous diesel motors in Augsburg, South Germany. MAN Roland has a museum in Augsburg, with the earliest diesel engines, presses, trucks and other historical pieces.

Since the early 1980s, MAN Roland has sold products in the US after buying Wood, which had bought the Hoe Printing Press Company earlier.

A MAN Roland web user group was formed under manufacturer sponsorship in the US, and in 1998 EEUC (the Electronic Equipment User Club) started to offer help for the graphic industry struggling with the Denglisch of these and other Swiss, Austrian and German products. The club mentor can be reached at doc-hecky@juno.com for further information. MANRUG founded in 2003, focuses on users of MAN printing presses in North and South America, with an annual convention.

In 2006 the parent company MAN AG sold a majority stake of the MAN Roland printing press company to a holding company (ACP Vermögensverwaltung GmbH & Co. KG Nr. 4a) which it owns jointly with Allianz Capital Partners (ACP). The split is 35% and 65% shares ownership respectively, with an eventual stock-exchange listing as the target.

MAN Roland owns a number of subsidiaries world wide, which provide sales, service and development for presses, including workflow software ppi Media, GmbH, strategic planning Eurografica, etc.

The most famous Roland presses would probably be the, Favourite, Parva, Ualtra andRekord, these were early presses, which would have been considered very large at the time. Roland also were the first presses to have to colour units in one larger holding unit.

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen wanted to merge with MAN Roland in the early 1990s.