Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Wiesloch-Walldorf Plant
09/15/2007
- World's largest and most state-of-the-art printing press factory
- Innovative production technologies for high-quality presses
- Hall 11 currently being built at a cost of 45 million Euro for a new generation of very large format printing presses
Today, the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant has a workforce of around 6,500 and covers an area of 860,000 square meters (9,250,000 square feet), making this ultramodern printing press production facility the world's largest. Parts and components are manufactured at the Heidelberg sites in Amstetten, Brandenburg and Wiesloch-Walldorf and by several hundred external suppliers. All Heidelberg sheetfed offset presses used by printers the world over are assembled at Wiesloch-Walldorf. Since production started here, over 400,000 printing units have been built, and the plant is still growing. The new Hall 11, in which Heidelberg has invested 45 million Euro, was officially opened on September 15, 2007. Here, a completely new generation of very large format presses will be assembled. "This new project reinforces our position as world market leader in sheetfed offset printing," stated Heidelberg CEO Bernhard Schreier at the groundbreaking ceremony in May 2006.
New out-of-town plant opened in 1957
Its unrestricted views of Heidelberg Castle and the introduction of the new A3 format Original Heidelberg Zylinder led to the decision to build at Wiesloch-Walldorf. When the economic miracle took hold in the early 1950s and more orders were placed with Schnellpressenfabrik AG Heidelberg, as it was known at the time, it became clear that the existing buildings in Heidelberg would not be able to cope for much longer. Heidelberg City Council was also planning to build a grand new thoroughfare from the station to the city center - with open views to Heidelberg Castle and the surrounding hills. Schnellpressenfabrik had been intending to erect a five-story building on its site, but the council plans threw a wrench in the works.
In 1956, Hubert H.A. Sternberg, Member of the Management Board at Heidelberg from 1926 to 1972, purchased roughly 38 hectares of open land in Wiesloch, a site on the Heidelberg-Bruchsal railway line from which oil was still being extracted at the time. This turned out to be a move of entrepreneurial vision. Had Heidelberg not had this large site in reserve, the company's major investment plans in subsequent decades would have been inconceivable.
Work at the site started in April 1956 with extensive drainage and pile foundations seven meters deep. It was the largest building site in the south-western part of Germany. Over 300 people were involved, including 80-man teams of masons, some of whom also worked on Sundays. A total of around two miles of track, one mile of telephone lines and one mile of pipes for compressed air were laid. Sternberg planned the factory himself. He made numerous preliminary business trips to the U.S. and took the American industrial construction concept as his model. This allowed for adaptations to take into account different production methods, new machinery and changing customer needs.
The factory was completed in mid-1957. It consisted of two 251.5 x 70 meters (825 x 230 feet) production halls, a two-story administrative building and a 1,000-capacity canteen. It also included a reception building, parking lots and its very own station - "Schnellpressenfabrik AG Heidelberg" - for staff and special trips to drupa, the international trade show for printing and paper in Dusseldorf.
The relocation from Heidelberg to Wiesloch-Walldorf ran like clockwork. The trucks rolled up and loaded up a workstation, while the operator removed his things from his locker and took up exactly where he left off the following day in Wiesloch. In June 1957, assembly started in one of the production halls for the Original Heidelberg Tiegel 26 x 38 centimeters (10.24 x 14.96 inches) and 34 x 46 centimeters (13.39 x 18.11 inches) automatic platen letterpresses. In July 1957, the second production hall started assembly of the new Original Heidelberg Zylinder 38 x 52 centimeters (14.96 x 20.47 inches). The administrative, research and development departments, the spare parts store and, for the time being at least, the Original Heidelberg Zylinder 54 x 72 centimeters (21.26 x 28.35 inches) and part of the Tiegel production operations remained in Heidelberg. The training workshop also relocated at a later stage.
A double celebration is twice as good
There was a double celebration to mark the opening of the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. On July 5, 1957 there was a grand ceremony to which a total of 4,000 guests were invited - including the mayor, construction companies involved in the project, employees and their spouses, colleagues from Heidelberg and Geislingen, and retired staff. Guests raised their glasses three times to toast the opening of the plant, the new Original Heidelberg Zylinder and the 30th anniversary of Hubert H.A. Sternberg joining the company. Guests were suitably impressed by the size of the halls with their bright, clearly laid out workstations and enjoyed the evening entertainment provided by radio, TV and variety entertainers such as Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff and Gerhard Wendland.
The official opening of the new Wiesloch-Walldorf plant was marked by an international conference which took place from July 13-15, 1957 with around 300 representatives from all over the world. Sternberg unveiled the new Original Heidelberg Zylinder in its full glory and introduced the new sales and marketing strategy. After a development process spanning eight years - including two years of testing by customers - Sternberg drew back the curtain and revealed the Original Heidelberg Zylinder with the words "Open Sesame." The Heidelberg production program now included four high-performance letterpresses in the most popular formats - A3 and A2. The huge progress made by the company is demonstrated by the following statistics. When Hubert H.A. Sternberg joined the management team in 1926, the company had around 300 employees. By 1957, this figure had increased to 3,520 across the entire Heidelberg Group and sales had risen one hundred fold over this period.
At the official opening of the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant, bronze plaques were put up welcoming printers from around the world in various languages: "This factory was built over a one-year period for printers the world over. Original Heidelberg presses have become a byword for top performance, a reputation which this plant will uphold and build on over the coming decades."
On July 13, 1957, Hubert H.A. Sternberg officially opened the facilities he devised and planned. Over 3,000 employees greeted the world's printers, who currently already have over 80,000 Heidelberg machines in operation.
Machines and assembly lines then sprang to life, operated by our skilled workers and supervised by our foremen, supervisors and engineers. Their aim will always be to provide printers with the best possible machines, knowing no boundaries, for the further development of the graphic arts industry and thus for the benefit of mankind.
The plant just keeps on growing
Production expanded rapidly at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. In the next four years alone, six additional halls were built.
In 1962, Heidelberg made the switch from letterpress to offset printing. The first offset press was the Heidelberg KOR (Kleine Offset Rotation) for the 40 x 57 centimeters (15.75 x 22.44 inches) format. Two-thirds of its components came from the standard letterpress. The feeder, delivery and control elements were largely identical to those of automatic cylinder letterpresses. During the switch to offset printing, the factory was completely restructured and organized according to families of parts, irrespective of press type.
Heidelberg was also keen to reflect these far-reaching changes in its name, and in 1967 Schnellpressenfabrik AG Heidelberg was renamed Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.
Additional halls were needed following the introduction of further new products, including the GTO single-color press for the A3 format in 1972 and the first Speedmaster four-color press for the A2 format in 1974. The Heidelberg GTO, which gave its name to an entire format class, enabled high-quality small-format printing. At the end of the 1970s, the series included single-, two- and four-color GTOs which could also be converted to perfecting printing. The series is still being built to this day. That makes it the most successful quality offset press series of all time.
The Speedmaster series is a completely new press generation for multicolor and perfecting printing at speeds of up to 11,000 sheets per hour. It has been developed on an ongoing basis and to the present day provides a firm foundation for the success of Heidelberg press business.
The central store was built in 1980. The manufacture of parts was switched to NC (numerical control) machines and developed largely independently in cooperation with Aachen University. For a time in the mid-1980s, Wiesloch-Walldorf accounted for a third of all NC machines installed in Europe. Production investments were given high priority at Heidelberg. The strategy was always to use the latest technology, always to come out on top, and to rationalize wherever possible. In the period between 1950 and 1979 alone, Heidelberg invested over 450 million Euro in new production facilities.
A magical milestone was passed in 1981 when sales revenues reached the equivalent of 500 million Euro (1.03 billion DM). This was also the year the company celebrated the delivery of the 300,000th Heidelberg press from the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant.
In 1982, Heidelberg officially opened its new head office at company headquarters in Heidelberg.
In 1985, the last Tiegel press left the production line. Heidelberg supplied a total of 165,000 presses of this type and they are still an essential part of many print shops, primarily being used for tasks such as creasing, die cutting and embossing. It was at this point that the triumphal march of the Speedmaster series of sheetfed offset presses started. In 1986, Heidelberg launched the Speedmaster CD 102, a trendsetting press for large-format packaging printing.
Midway through 1985, the new foundry in Amstetten, in which Heidelberg had invested over 450 million Euro, was also officially opened. Amstetten is now a competence center for casting and mainly manufactures large press components. It is one of Europe's most modern foundries as well as being one of the 15 largest, and is also the biggest mechanical engineering foundry in Germany.
30th anniversary of the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Wiesloch-Walldorf site in 1987, the electronics production hall and the current medium- and large-format assembly halls were officially opened. There were now over 5,000 people working at the plant.
Production methods have been improved and enhanced on an ongoing basis to keep ahead of the competition in terms of product quality and production technology. A further demonstration of this competitive edge was the high level of automation - a level unmatched anywhere else in the printing press industry. Computer-controlled machining centers, driverless transport systems, and an integrated logistics center ensured flexible and cost-effective production. Over one thousand machine tools were used, including around six hundred highly flexible, programmable NC machines. These one thousand machine tools produced three times the amount achieved twelve years previously with one thousand four hundred. And almost half the machines were less than five years old.
Between 1977 and 1987, over 250 million Euro was invested in modernizing and expanding the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. During this period, the vertical range of manufacture also rose as high as 80 percent, but it has now fallen to under 40 percent due to the introduction of electronics in presses.
Production halls were increasingly being given over to office space, but in 1990 the administrative functions and canteen were given a new home.
The Research & Development Center at company headquarters in Heidelberg was also officially opened that same year.
The data center at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant opened in 1991 at the same time as the gear production hall.
In 1992, Heidelberg started production at its plant in Brandenburg in which it had invested 100 million Euro. Brandenburg forms part of the Heidelberg manufacturing network, producing assemblies and complex rotationally symmetrical and profiled parts such as shafts and rollers.
Heidelberg launched the new Speedmaster SM 74 press for the 52 x 74 centimeters (20.47 x 29.13 inches) format in 1994, followed by the Speedmaster SM 52 for the smaller A3 format in 1995 at drupa. 1995 also saw the launch of the Printmaster QM 46, a successful entry-level press.
A further important development in 1995 was the construction of the new training center at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. Nearly 200 young people started their training at this center on September 1, 2006. The proportion of trainees across the entire Heidelberg manufacturing network is roughly six percent.
In 1996, Heidelberg took over prepress and color management specialist Linotype-Hell AG. While research and development work remain at the Kiel site, Suprasetter platesetters have been assembled at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant since 2004. Key electronic components are manufactured at the adjacent electronics production facility.
1999 saw the official opening of the World Logistics Center. Maximum availability of machinery is a key success factor for printers in view of the fierce competition on the market. For this very reason, Heidelberg maintains a close-knit global service network. Customers can now obtain spare parts round the clock - within 24 hours in Europe. A central computer coordinates with intermediate storage facilities to calculate the quickest way to supply all kinds of spare parts anywhere in the world.
In 2003, Heidelberg initiated the "High Performance Production HPP 2006" project at the Wiesloch, Brandenburg and Amstetten production sites. This project continues today in the form of the Heidelberg Production System (HPS). The aim of the project was to use people's know-how for the effective design and ongoing improvement of production processes. Key objectives were to keep unit labor costs competitive, boost productivity and product quality and safeguard jobs at the site.
Heidelberg unveiled the Speedmaster XL 105 at drupa 2004, marking the world premiere of a new series of printing presses for highly industrialized offset printing that are capable of attaining speeds of 18,000 sheets per hour. As the first press in a brand new peak performance class, the Speedmaster XL 105 sets new standards in terms of productivity, quality and cost-effectiveness. Series production started at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant in April 2005.
In 2004, Heidelberg started assembly of the Suprasetter family of platesetters at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. It was Heidelberg that developed the laser head used in these platesetters.
2006 saw the groundbreaking ceremony for the assembly hall for the new "very large format" Speedmaster XL 145 and XL 162 presses.
The hall being erected measures 35,000 square meters (377,000 square feet) - roughly equivalent to the size of five soccer fields. Heidelberg is investing around 45 million Euro in this hall - yet another major investment at the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. Only Wiesloch-Walldorf has the comprehensive know-how, the innovative production processes and the extremely well-trained staff required to achieve the company's ambitious goal. The official opening of Hall 11 will take place on September 15, 2007, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Wiesloch-Walldorf plant. For further information, please contact:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Business press
Thomas Fichtl
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 47 47
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 69
E-mail: thomas.fichtl@heidelberg.com Trade press
Hilde Weisser
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 50 66
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 69
E-mail: hilde.weisser@heidelberg.com
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