Heidelberg Making Digital Printing Productive and Profitable for Global Print Businesses - Today

NexPress 2100 sales on track; 3,000th Digimaster 9110 shipped

Visitors to the ON DEMAND trade show will see how they can benefit from the performance and productivity of Heidelberg's color and black-and-white digital printing solutions.

Heidelberg is showcasing some of the many customers who are employing the digital print systems to expand their capabilities and boost their busi- nesses. The company also provided an update on its NexPress 2100 digital production color press and Digimaster 9110 Network Imaging System.

• More than 170 NexPress 2100 presses have been sold since its launch in September. The majority of these units have been installed - on track with the company's plan to have several hundred in place by the end of this year.
• Currently available in 12 countries, the NexPress 2100's global presence will expand into additional countries this year, including Mexico, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
• Heidelberg recently shipped its 3,000th Digimaster 9110 print system and expanded the digital print system's availability into Brazil, the Czech Republic, Japan, Malaysia and Poland.
• Heidelberg is demonstrating new software at ON DEMAND, including NexTreme software for variable data printing and the recently announced ImageSmart software for managing documents on either the NexPress 2100 or Digimaster 9110 print systems.

"Right now - today - an array of customers worldwide are using Heidelberg's digital solutions in a range of applications, helping drive growth in the industry," said Wolfgang Pfizenmaier, president of Heidelberg's Digital Solution Center. "Increasingly, print providers are using both the NexPress 2100 and Digimaster 9110 printer to complement their offset solutions and to offer virtually unlimited services to their customers."

Pfizenmaier noted that Heidelberg is making its customers the central focus at ON DEMAND. Newly installed NexPress 2100 press customers include Creative Digital, RT Associates and Virtual Literature Management (VLM), and recently added Digimaster 9110 system customers include Digital DRS and Royal Omegagraphics. (See separate case studies)

Another customer, Cohber, will be speaking at the ON DEMAND show about its experiences with both the NexPress 2100 and Digimaster 9110 machines in a variety of applications, including quick turnaround and variable data printing.

NexPress 2100 fulfilling expectations
The NexPress 2100 system's early sales success puts Heidelberg well on its way toward achieving its 20 percent digital color market share goal by the end of 2003.

According to Pfizenmaier, the sales success is tremendous, but the company is more pleased by its satisfied customers, who are benefiting from the machine's best-in-class uptime, image quality, reliability and consistency:

• More than 80 percent of customers are regularly producing jobs with run lengths greater than 1,000. Run lengths range from as small as one, to as large as tens of thousands, particularly with variable data applications.
• NexPress 2100 press customers are making money with the machine. Most report that they are surprised by how quickly the machine begins producing jobs they can sell to customers, with outstanding image quality and waste well below average.
• Customers are enthusiastic about the NexPress 2100's user serviceability concept, including operator replaceable components and onboard NexPert support. More than 70 percent of all service and maintenance requirements are being handled on-site by the operators, eliminating the need for service calls and thereby increasing uptime.

Heidelberg is showing ON DEMAND visitors new variable data software for the NexPress 2100 press. The NexTreme software application Is the first to output in the new PPML/VDX open standard. It targets customers who run a lot of variable jobs, or jobs with much variable content.

Available since last September, the NexPress 2100 press sets new standards for uptime, reliability, consistency and image quality in a digital color press. The sheet-fed press produces ready-to-finish sets, automatically collated, dry and static-free as soon as they hit the delivery station at the full engine speed of 2100, A3+ (350 x 470 millimeters) or tabloid+ (13.8 x 18.5 inches) sheets per hour.

The black-and-white print system of choice
While the NexPress 2100 press is redefining digital color printing, the Digimaster 9110 print system is strengthening its position as the digital printer of choice for high-volume monochrome printing.

Pfizenmaier stated that the company will build on its 3,000 units in the marketplace by continuing to offer accessories and software applications that meet customer needs and by expanding the system's presence in the global market. The newly added Digimaster 9110 printer markets - Brazil, the Czech Republic, Japan, Malaysia and Poland - join an array of global market placements, including Australia, Canada, central Europe, Iceland, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the U.S.

The Digimaster 9110 Network Imaging System uses powerful high-definition imaging technology to deliver documents with fine text and rich graphics at 600 dots per inch, at a rate of 110 images per minute. Designed to meet the workflow needs of on-demand printing and duplicating, it employs an open architecture that allows it to be easily integrated into networks.

At ON DEMAND, Heidelberg is demonstrating how recent accessories and software are boosting the productivity of the system for its customers. Recently announced products include:

• The Hole Puncher 9110, an inline solution delivering best-in-class hole drilling at full printer speed.
• ImageSmart Document Mastering 2.0 software, an open-architecture, PDF-based software that lets both Digimaster 9110 and NexPress 2100 press customers easily manage their documents in black-and-white jobs, color jobs, and combined jobs with color covers and inserts with black-and-white text pages.

For further information:
Europe
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Matthias Hartung
Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 77
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail: matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com

USA
Heidelberg Digital Solution Center
Director, Communications
Doug Sprei
Tel.: +1 (0)585 512 80 54
E-mail: doug.sprei@heidelberg.com