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.
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