KENNESAW, Ga. - Heidelberg USA today announced that Primary Color,
a $50 million, high-end commercial printer based in Culver City,
Calif., recently purchased a new Speedmaster XL 105 eight-color
press with extended delivery as well as multiple bindery equipment
additions from Heidelberg as part of a companywide upgrade of
printing and bindery operations. New bindery additions include an
automated Stahlfolder TH-82 folder, a Stitchmaster ST 90 six-pocket
saddlestitcher with cover feeder and hand feed station, and a POLAR
RA-4 jogger with pile turner and Transomat. The installations will
take place in conjunction with the planned relocation of the
company's Culver City facility to El Segundo, Calif. in August
2007, and its Irvine, Calif. facility to Costa Mesa, Calif. in
early 2008.
According to Mike Hirt, Vice President of Manufacturing,
Primary Color expects to realize productivity gains of 50 percent
as a result of the upgrades, including a 20 to 30 percent
improvement in make-readies on the new XL 105. "Given our
reputation for quality and brand consistency and our expertise in
color management, we knew the XL 105 was the press for us."
The new machine will join Primary Color's existing six- and
eight-color Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 presses in the company's
new El Segundo headquarters, where it will be put to work turning
out high-impact brochures and marketing collateral at its maximum
real production speed of 18,000 impressions per hour.
The fully automated Speedmaster XL 105 is the ideal
high-volume production press for the commercial, label and
packaging sectors, combining the shortest make-ready with the
highest real production speeds, contributing to maximum
productivity and output.
Features include:
- Preset Plus Feeder, ensuring that sheets are fed stress-free,
aligned precisely, and travel smoothly into the first unit. All
material air adjustments are preset and storable.
- AirTransfer system with Venturi sheet guide plates, allowing
sheets of any stock to travel mark-free and register-true, even
at full production speeds to 18,000 sheets per hour.
- Autoplate Advanced for fast, precise, reliable plate
changing.
- Multi-functional Hycolor inking and dampening system with
standard or short inking mode, always offering the right quantity
of ink. The standard Vario system and the new roller wash-up
reduce the washup time by 30 to 50 percent.
- Highly automated chamber doctor blade coating unit with broad
remote control functionalities.
- Preset Plus Delivery, with aerodynamically designed gripper
bars and perfectly adapted Venturi air sheet guide plates,
stabilizing even the thinnest substrates at maximum production
speeds.
- DryStar 3000 dryers, perfectly adjusted to the air-guided
sheet travel and 30 percent more powerful to secure proper drying
even at maximum press speeds. CP2000-controlled and presettable,
with final adjustments storable with the job.
With the prospect of significant productivity gains in the
pressroom, the longtime Heidelberg customer also saw the need to
increase its bindery throughput with state-of-the-art, automated
equipment. Hirt expects Primary Color's upgraded bindery to yield
significant productivity improvements once the new folder, stitcher
and jogger are up and running in the company's new El Segundo plant
later this year.
Efficient automation and the ergonomic design of the
Stahlfolder TH/KH folder reduce changeover times and shorten
make-readies. TH/KH folders can be combined with various types of
deliveries, such as vertical or horizontal pressing stackers and
offer a choice of pile feeder, continuous feeder or pallet feeder.
Heidelberg's Stitchmaster ST 90 saddlestitcher handles a wide
range of products and substrates at speeds from 1,500 up to 9,000
cycles per hour. The signature feeders and the cover folder feeder
are quick and easy to make ready from job to job, while a central
operating panel on the stitcher section makes it easier for the
operator to monitor the production of the entire machine. The
stitcher can be configured in two-pocket increments on up to a
cover feeder with eight pockets, multiple cover feeders or ten
pockets, and the stitching unit can accommodate up to four standard
or loop-stitching heads.
POLAR's RA4 automated jogger with air removal and POLAR-Acme
Weight Counting Scale enables fast load building and precise counts
prior to counting. The POLAR pile-turner model PW-4ABV makes fast
work of flipping loads between press passes and speeds drying due
to airing. The compact Transomat palletizer model TR-E-130-5
automatically unloads both uncut and finished sheets into perfectly
aligned piles that can be processed immediately, reducing
production costs by up to 70 percent, depending on the cutting
program.
Primary Color relied on its longstanding relationship with
Heidelberg when finalizing its capital investment and relocation
plans. "Heidelberg has a wealth of experience in managing the
whole process. It also has the broadest and most extensively
integrated product portfolio in the business. We saw no reason to
go anywhere else," said Hirt.
Editorial Contact:
Manning Selvage & Lee
Rebecca Harbin
Tel.: +1 404-870-6825
E-mail:
rebecca.harbin@mslpr.com