The Printing Industries Olympics |
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For our industry drupa is the Olympics’, it’s the time of excitement, it’s the time for new innovations and where all competition gets to meet face to face and customers see all there is to see “under one roof”.
It was a little over 2 years ago when our CEO Bernhard Schreier, announced Heidelberg will enter the VLF format with 2 new presses the XL162 and XL145. Since that announcement it has been one of the most anticipated releases promised at drupa. And there it was standing at over 3 meters high, weighing nearly 200 tones in Hall 2 – the XL162-6+L
Before Heidelberg’s entrance, VLF machines were still surprisingly manual, make readies of over an hour were still common and production times were long. Now Heidelberg brings to the VLF market all the innovations known to commercial industrial printers fromn the Peak Performance XL105 press. Full preset air values, automatic wash ups, de-clutchable ink trains, simultaneous plate change and printing at a true 15,000 an hour. The drupa demonstrations showed how such a massive piece of equipment can be set up in less than 15 minutes, and then go into full production speed at 15,000 sph. This represents unmatched productivity.
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With our motto - HEI Performance and HEI Value dominating our presence it wasn’t only the VLF presses claiming the HEI Ground.
In the one pass productivity area Heidelberg released another industry first. Here Heidelberg showed two 10 colour perfectors, the new XL75-10P and the long awaited XL105-10P. But these are not just long perfectors, both presses are fitted with Inpress control and the new AutoPlate XL.
Inpress control is an inline colour and registration measuring system which adjusts the colour and registration automatically without stopping the press. This results in tremendous savings in paper and time during makeready and production. Then comes AutoPlate XL, this system changes 10 plates on long perfectors in less than 2 minutes and is available on all Peak Performance Class machines.
As the demonstration started both presses ran at 15,000 sph, the speaker then asked a member of the audience to choose a job from a selection on offer. The presses stopped and began to makeready in full automatic mode. Plates are changed, stock settings are done, colour is adjusted and the presses are restarted. As the first sheets are delivered, in colour and registration the clock stops at 2.50 minutes, unbelievable! Both presses have completed a full job change in less than 3 minutes.
Talking of make ready and reduction of waste, Anicolor was presented on a Speedmaster 52, 10 colour perfector. Released at IPEX 2006, the technology is not new but with more than 100 machines sold worldwide and now available with coating and special colours the range has taken hold. drupa demonstrations not only illustrated firsthand the savings in time and paper Anicolor is capable of but presented case studies confirming users are beating our claims of 90% reduction in waste sheets, 40% reduction in makeready time and 25% increase in productivity.
With the growth coating and UV drupa was always going to see advances in special applications printing. Here we saw a XL105-6L with full UV equipment printing at 18,000sph, again another industry first. As all UV printers would know average speeds for printing UV are usually between 9,000-11,000sph and in keeping with our focus on productivity this result - an increase of over 75%, will change UV production forever.
In Halls 1 and 2 Heidelberg set new standards for print production. Marrying Eco responsibility with our full offering of Saphira consumables and our unmatched systemservice support in concert with consulting services, Heidelberg is ready to help you meet the challenges the next 4 years will bring.
Further Information:
Lindsay Barnes
Product Manager – Sheetfed
Tel. +61 3 9263 3381
Email: Lindsay.Barnes@heidelberg.com
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We're bringing drupa to you
If you will not travel to Dusseldorf in May this year, we will present Heidelberg's innovations and HEI Lights during July. HAN invite you attend our post drupa information sessions in a city near you!
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