IST celebrates 30th anniversary in North America

As one of the earliest companies formed by Germany-based IST Metz in 1992, IST America initially established a sales and service organization strategically based in Chicago to target OEM press manufacturers and end-use customers in the rapidly growing North American marketplace. 

Throughout the 1990s IST America’s influence grew quickly, encompassing both the sheetfed and roll-fed markets. Over the course of that decade, UV delivered an advanced application platform to sheetfed printers, providing a more flexible and productive technology with the ability to print on the widest range of substrates while offering the ability to dry trap or semi-dry trap between print units. Around this same time, the narrow web market was witnessing the rapid increase of press installations that included multiple print formats like letterpress, UV flexo and rotary screen on a single press. Printed packaging buyers were demanding greater opacity, higher color integrity and finer vignettes and gradations with their printed products - specifications that were beyond the scope of conventional printing and drying methods.

‘If we have a secret, it’s the quality of the products we represent together with the team we have created,’ commented IST America president, Bill Bonallo. ‘They are skilled, driven, loyal and truly understand the sense of urgency our customers demand and deserve. In the U.S., the industries we serve run fifty-two weeks a year, seven days a week and normally twenty-four hours a day. Companies do not have a lot of patience when it comes to the need for support, no matter what time of day, or day of the week. 

‘IST America has the largest parts inventory of any IST subsidiary in the world. With tens of thousands of systems in the field our installation base is massive, and we proudly populate the vast majority of the best-known printing and packaging companies around the globe. We take IST’s ultra-high performance and highly reliable equipment and provide our customers with the same level of attention and service that their customers expect from them, every UV curing day. That is our formula for success.’

Today, IST America is still headquartered in the Chicago area with sales and service personnel in strategic locations across the US. The company’s in-house team handles parts operations, service operations, financial management, logistics, and technical support. IST remains a leader in influencing the way that the printing, packaging and industrial markets optimize print quality, sustainability, energy efficiency and performance.