PrintScape showcases one-pass productivity
A Heidelberg SM 102-12-P six-over-six long perfecting press is the longest perfecting press built by Heidelberg. One of these is installed at Websdale Printing in Sydney. Penfold Buscombe has just ordered a 10-colour, long perfecting press for its new site in Sydney, in the New Year.
The SM 102-8-P four-over-four, perfecting press with Cutstar sheeter – the centrepiece of the Heidelberg industry event in Sydney last week – was sold off the floor to Impact Printing, Melbourne. The press, which remained on the showroom floor for the three day event courtesy of its new owners, joins over 28 of these highly productive eight, ten, and twelve unit perfectors installed throughout the region, giving Australia and New Zealand a competitive world ranking in the adoption of long perfector presses. Working on per head of population, the Aussies and the Kiwis are third in the world after Germany and the UK in the adoption of the mega-productive machines.
Conceived specifically for commercial printers with perfecting presses, the CutStar is an excellent investment, since the sheeter can be utilized to the full and really show off its breathtaking economic benefits.
At the second Heidelberg Printscape promotion for 2002, Andreas Sommer, Head of the Heidelberg’s Sheetfed Solution Centre Australia/New Zealand presented a compelling case for the success of one pass productivity.
“The Australian and New Zealand markets have really embraced long perfector press technology in recent times. If we consider the figures since 1993, the sale of long perfecting presses shows a dramatic uptake. In our current financial year 63 per cent of SM102/CD102 sales were SM 102 units built in long perfecting presses,” he said. “These statistics demonstrate that Australian and New Zealand printers are quick to put that technology to work for them.”
Heidelberg perfecting presses deliver an effective 26,000 sheets per hour. Of the 30,000 perfecters installed throughout the world, 850 are long perfecting presses, either eight, ten, or 12 printing units.
At the Heidelberg showroom in Sydney, printers from Australia and New Zealand got to see the long perfector technology up close. The four-over-four SM 102-8-P, bookended by the CutStar reel-to-sheet feeder and on the finishing side by the recently released Stitchmaster ST400, the latest in saddle stitching technology put the company’s benchmark on the operation of one-pass productivity.
The Stitchmaster ST400 was also sold off the floor at Printscape to Brebner Print of New Zealand.
Printscape shows the way
Prinscape proved a success by providing printers with the opportunity to see every aspect of the Heidelberg workflow, Printect, in action. This CIP4 - compliant system incorporated the new Heidelberg prepress workflow, PrintReady, which was introduced at Graph Expo in Chicago, a few days before the Sydney event. The JDF based technology is designed to further extend the Heidelberg’s suite of digital workflow solutions known as Prinect.
“The reason we bring these new technologies to Australia and New Zealand so quickly is because the market is incredibly receptive and eager to continue to learn new ways to increase productivity and improve workflow. Increasing profit margins are the essence to the new technologies that Heidelberg is implementing, helping printers to work smarter and drive their profits up, ” said Sommer.
“Heidelberg is clearly leading the field and is committed to developing strong partnerships with our customers. We are equally committed to staying at the forefront of research and development, to ensure that we bring to the marketplace the most comprehensive solutions to assist our customers to work more profitably in the future,” he concluded.