“Since making the switch from straight presses to long perfecting presses, we now have the third long perfecting press from Heidelberg in succession,” reports Helmut Wünderlich, Managing Director of G+D Grafik und Druck, proudly. Mr. Wünderlich enjoys a long-standing loyal partnership with Heidelberg, and the success proves his decision right. Because the requirement for Heidelberg is to deliver tangible added value with each new investment, like clear competitive advantages in the form of increased productivity and quality.
The most impressive feature of the current Speedmaster XL 75 ten-color press with perfecting device and coating unit is its Push to Stop philosophy. This enables a fully automatic job change, from the the last to the first good sheet, right up to the start of production. “We can prepare and release multiple follow-up jobs while production is still underway,” says Production Manager Tim Russmann, adding: “The operator can take care of other tasks around the press, safe in the knowledge that the Speedmaster is producing the run and Prinect Inpress Control is monitoring it. Even the next job change starts automatically right through to starting the run.” The operators also find the current way of working much more pleasant; they experience less stress and have a much better overview of active and queued jobs. “If the production schedule changes, the jobs can be rescheduled without too much effort or completely new jobs can be arranged in the desired sequence,” reports Wünderlich. “In our company, everything is planned down to the last detail. All our printers only have to supervise the plates and the material, because all the production data is entered in the workflow,” says Wünderlich in closing about the company’s successful move into industrial print production.
“If you want to stay out in front, you have to work at it.” This is the motto of the skilled master typesetter Helmut Wünderlich, who has been successfully running his Kiel-based company with 35 staff for over 40 years. It operates mainly in the commercial printing sector, producing materials for a loyal customer base, including the THW handball club, especially programs, flyers, brochures, and catalogs. It has a balanced mix of run lengths, with an even split between short and long runs. “We’re not an online print shop, and have the highest standards of quality, but the time factor also plays a huge role,” says Wünderlich in summarizing the daily challenges his company face. “With the new technology we can ensure our ability to meet even tight deadlines. And that increases our competitiveness in the long term,” says Wünderlich.
The Speedmaster XL 75-10-P+L was installed at the beginning of 2016 and is the first perfecting press supplied in the drupa 2016 design. Equipped with numerous features like the fully automatic plate changer AutoPlate XL, the high-performance control station Prinect Press Center XL 2 with process-oriented operator guidance system Intellistart 2 and Wallscreen XL, the automatic ink feed system InkLine 3000 Direct, and the washup devices for inking unit, rubber blanket, and impression cylinder, the press offers an extremely high degree of automation combined with maximum availability.
The highlight of the press, which Helmut Wünderlich would not be without now, is the highly automated Preset Plus feeder. A wide range of presettings in combination with outstanding feed registration permit reliable, continuous production at maximum production speeds and effortless processing of a whole spectrum of substrates, whether lightweight paper or thick cardboard. And Helmut Wünderlich can only agree: “The new press has delivered another marked increase in our output. This is because the new feeder means that in most cases we can process even very critical materials with a paper thickness of between 60 and 400 g at a maximum production speed of 15,000 sheets per hour. And it makes no difference whether they are short short runs of 500 to 5,000 sheets or very long runs of up to 400,000 sheets.” Prinect Inpress Control 2, the inline measurement and control system for color and register, also contributes to this. “Automatic color and register control mean that we have consistently high print quality across the entire run and job changes go extremely quickly,” adds Wünderlich with satisfaction.
