Heidelberg Prepress, Press and Postpress Technologies Benefit Printers Nationwide |
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| 07/01/2008 |
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Heidelberg USA announces the following new product installations:
Growing Austin Shop Installs Prosetter Violet Platesetter, Printmaster PM 52 Press and POLAR Cutter from Heidelberg
A lot has changed over the years for Republic Print & Mail in Austin, Texas, which has grown from its beginnings as a franchise quick-print operation to a full-service general commercial shop with 15 employees. The shop recently upgraded its prepress, press and postpress operations with new equipment from Heidelberg in order to keep up with business growth.
"The high volume of work was getting to be a problem," Sam Painovich, one of the business partners, said. "We were constantly backed up and were struggling to keep up with the work. Our presses were simply not up to the task." In April, the shop installed a Prosetter 52 violet platesetter, a 4-color Printmaster PM 52 perfecting press and POLAR 78X cutter, all from Heidelberg. The company runs Heidelberg Saphira violet plates for every job. "We were amazed at the level of technology today," Painovich said. "We never imagined all of the things this press can do. Now that it is up and running, the results are even better than expected." While quality and efficiency were key reasons why the shop chose Heidelberg, another important factor was having a single, integrated service provider for prepress, press and postpress equipment. "The ability to rely on Heidelberg systemservice will be critical to our success with the new equipment. The high level of service has been unlike anything we’ve ever had." To ensure continued quality and reliability, the shop uses all Heidelberg Saphira consumables for its press and prepress equipment. "We’ve always had to mix and match equipment and chemistry," Painovich said. "That means testing products to see how things perform, and when they don’t, having to regroup and start the process over. We’re making it easy for ourselves by using tested and approved Heidelberg Saphira consumables, and everything is running smoothly."
Harmony Press Experiences Growth Explosion, Becomes All-Heidelberg Shop
Harmony Press in Easton, Pennsylvania, has grown more than 53 percent in the last three years, and is not slowing down. "We are excited about the future and expect continued growth," General Manager Gary Male said. "Our philosophy is to figure out what it takes to get the job done - nothing is impossible." In today’s high-demand, quick-turnaround environment, Harmony Press has turned to Heidelberg for help in the prepress department, pressroom and bindery. The most recent installation of Heidelberg’s 8-color Speedmaster CD 74 with perfector and Prinect Axis Control already has the shop competing in the 40-inch market. "We believe any general commercial printers that are not perfecting in the next few years will be left behind," Male said. "The base of our work is 4/4, so we are running the new press at full speed over two shifts - and loving the results." The company also recently invested in a new Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST 350 saddlestitcher, which eliminates bindery bottlenecks with its speed of 12,000 cycles per hour. And, to complete the conversion to a full Heidelberg shop, Harmony Press has also installed a full prepress system with Prinect workflow and a Suprasetter 74 platesetter from Heidelberg. "We have really partnered with Heidelberg in the past year to become an all-Heidelberg shop from start to finish," Male stated. "Our shop is now completely automated, which Heidelberg demonstrated was key to success in the future." Harmony Press hopes to be a one-stop shop for its customers, and Heidelberg is proving to be a one-stop partner for the company. Not only does Harmony Press use all Heidelberg equipment, but they also use Heidelberg Saphira consumables, from plates to fountain solutions. Harmony Press customers include universities, corporations, advertising and graphic arts agencies, and publications. The company was founded in 1947 and currently has 50 full-time employees.
Palmer Printing Increases Capacity with POLAR Cutting System from Heidelberg
Palmer Printing Company, a general commercial shop in Waite Park, Minnesota, was looking to improve its postpress capabilities and increase productivity when it added a POLAR 137 cutting system from Heidelberg to its lineup. "We do not always have the luxury of adding another shift to increase our throughput," Operations Manager Greg Meyers said. "We needed to increase productivity through efficiency." Palmer Printing, founded in the late 1960s and employing 45, already had a POLAR 115 that was working well - but thanks to business growth, the shop needed to add a second, larger cutter to the bindery. The new cutter fully integrates with the shop’s prepress workflow with Heidelberg Compucut, which means setup is automatically dialed into the machine before the job even arrives. And the Transomat loading and unloading system makes jobs move much more quickly. "Both the interface and the automation features of the new cutter have turned out great - better than we anticipated," Meyers said. In addition to the two POLAR cutters, Palmer also runs a 2-color Printmaster PM 74 and 4-color Speedmaster SM 74 in the pressroom, and a Stitchmaster ST 100 saddlestitcher and Stahlfolder B20 and B26 folders in the bindery - all from Heidelberg. "We’ve always had a really great experience with service from Heidelberg," Meyers said.
Duplicates Ink Celebrates Grand Opening with Heidelberg Press, Prepress Equipment
Duplicates Ink, Print and Communications in Conway, South Carolina, is celebrating a new chapter for its business that has been more than 17 years in the making. After opening to humble beginnings in 1991, the company’s co-founders, Scott Creech and John Cassidy, decided to expand into four-color work to handle more of their job load in-house. There was just one problem: After purchasing a lot in 1999 with plans to construct a completely new building, Hurricane Floyd hit the coastal town and flooded the entire property. "After the hurricane, our priorities were shifted as we concentrated on sustaining our existing business while everyone in the area re-built their lives," Creech said. Eventually, the amount of four-color work that the company was brokering became a cost issue, and once again focus turned to building a new, larger home for Duplicates Ink. "We were happy with our 2-color Printmaster QM 46 press from Heidelberg, so we wanted to stick with Heidelberg when expanding into four-color capabilities," Creech said. The business partners interviewed many area printers with Heidelberg presses to determine the best fit for their needs, and decided to invest in a Printmaster PM 52 press and a fully-automatic Suprasetter A52 platesetter. "We realized after speaking with many people that the option to upgrade and install the Suprasetter A52 thermal CtP platesetter was the best decision for us, instead of relying on polyester plates," Creech said. "We were able to install the platesetter with the Auto Top Loader (ATL) attachment, which automates the entire process - including the removal of slip sheets." Heidelberg Saphira Chemfree thermal plates, which eliminate the need to constantly dump chemistry, were a major reason why the company decided to install the thermal platesetter. The press and platesetter have been up and running for less than two months, yet Duplicates Ink has already been able to match the quality of any broker job and is continuing to ramp up the speed and productivity of its shop. "It seems that every week, our productivity continues to increase," Creech said. "We experienced a huge learning curve with a completely new format, but the press is very user-friendly and we are pleased with the results we have already seen." In addition, Heidelberg Saphira consumables are in use throughout the shop. The seven full-time employees of Duplicates Ink serve clients in the sports, entertainment and manufacturing industries in the Grand Strand and surrounding areas.
Dunbar Printing Kicks Off Next 50 Years with New Heidelberg Equipment
Family-owned Dunbar Printing and Graphics has reached a milestone with the celebration of its 50th anniversary this year. The company, located in Dunbar, West Virginia, has a new outlook on success after turning to Heidelberg for help in upgrading its prepress and bindery. Satisfied with the quality Heidelberg had already brought to their pressroom, a trip to Heidelberg’s Print Media Demonstration Center (PMDC) in Kennesaw, Georgia, was planned and the decision was made to purchase a Suprasetter A74 platesetter.
"Our search for the perfect platesetter was a long one, because we wanted a solution that was eco-friendly without compromising throughput," President Larry Hackworth said. "We wanted to improve our quality and reduce our costs, and Heidelberg fulfilled those wishes." The Suprasetter A74 is chemical-free and produces less waste - features which are not only cost-effective but are also environmentally friendly. "We now have better quality with Heidelberg Saphira Chemfree plates and have reduced our costs with the Suprasetter A74," Print Solutions Consultant Aaron Mills, a third-generation family member, noted. "We were able to go to 200-line screen and match our inkjet proof to the press perfectly." Mills describes Heidelberg’s installation process for the platesetter as "above and beyond," citing the extra steps taken to ensure that the platesetter could be up and running quickly, reducing downtime and keeping the company at top speed. Soon after the Suprasetter was installed at Dunbar, a competitive cutter was replaced with a new Heidelberg POLAR 92X cutter in the bindery. "We made the decision to install a POLAR cutter purely on reputation," Mills reports. "Our bindery crew is very happy with how fast the new cutter is. It could not have come at a better time." Dunbar Printing & Graphics serves large and small companies in West Virginia and beyond, including West Virginia’s legislative printing. The company prides itself on customer service, no matter how small the project. "There are many small businesses in our area, and it is important to us to serve those small businesses just as well as any large client," Mills said. Loyalty to customers and employees is what has kept Dunbar Printing running for the last 50 years. With Heidelberg’s help, the company is hoping the next 50 will be even more successful.
New POLAR Cutter Keeps Universal Bookbindery a Cut Above
After recently trying out a competitive cutter, Universal Bookbindery decided to go back to its roots and purchase a new POLAR 115X cutter from Heidelberg. "We just were not happy with the competitive cutter, so we went back to POLAR because we knew that it would work best for us," President Tripp Worden said. The cutter was installed with a Transomat offloader, which is already increasing output for Universal Bookbindery. "We are gaining between 10 and 30 percent more throughput, and cutting 5-inch lifts," Worden said. "The fact that we can achieve that level of productivity just confirms that POLAR is the way to go for us." The company, which runs two additional POLAR cutters in its bindery, also has two Stahlfolders from Heidelberg. "We are happy with Heidelberg all round - good durability, good design, and good features," Worden stated. Acting as the first step in the finishing process, the cutter performs many functions for Universal Bookbindery. The company produces case-bound and perfect-bound books, as well as custom ring binders and a host of other finishing and binding specialties as a large trade bindery in San Antonio, Texas. The company, which started in 1918 in Corpus Christi and relocated to San Antonio in 1923, has more than 90 employees, more than 80 years of experience, and runs two shifts for increased output. Current clients include commercial printers, publishers, music and entertainment industry professionals and an array of customers needing custom finishing work.
Ginny’s Printing Consolidates and Gains Efficiency with Heidelberg Speedmaster Presses
Hoping to increase efficiency and maintain the quality results that its customers have come to expect, Ginny’s Printing in Austin, Texas, is consolidating its operations from two locations to one. The company has just installed two new Heidelberg presses to handle the work of five older presses, which have now been traded in or sold. "We only seriously considered Heidelberg when looking to upgrade our offset press capabilities," General Manager Michael Martin said. "We feel like Heidelberg is our partner for sheetfed offset business." The two new presses, an 8-color Speedmaster SM 102 perfector and a 6-color Speedmaster CD 102 with coater, will handle all of the work that used to run on five separate presses - and eventually will surpass that total. "We will run the new presses at full speed for three shifts, increasing our capacity and productivity," Martin said. The installation and training by Heidelberg have both gone smoothly, and Ginny’s Printing is eager to complete the transition into one facility. The company’s advanced technology has upgraded the pressroom as well as the bindery - including a new Stahlfolder from Heidelberg, installed in January, and the upcoming delivery of a third Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52 press, which will be installed later this summer. Founded in 1971, Ginny’s Printing has 230 employees and serves a diverse client base located in the greater Austin and San Antonio areas. "We will handle projects ranging from $10 to $10,000 in one day," Martin said. Ginny’s Printing prides itself on customer service, and continues to grow and evolve with the help of Heidelberg.
Minnesota University Enhances Safety with New POLAR Cutter from Heidelberg
With a steady stream of student assistants working at Winona State University’s in-plant print shop, safety is certainly a top priority. The university realized that a 30-year-old cutter that lacked modern safety features was an accident waiting to happen. The shop updated its prepress and press operations last summer with a Quicksetter 300E imagesetter and 2-color Printmaster QM 46 press, and determined that upgraded postpress with a POLAR 78X cutter was the next logical step. "We hire a lot of part-time student help, and there were a lot of safety issues," Print Shop Supervisor Greg Johnson said. "The old cutter, which was not a POLAR cutter, did not have all the safety features that the POLAR has." The shop runs brochures, pamphlets, posters and promotional items for the university, and even prints lab manuals, letterheads and envelopes. Johnson, who has been employed at the shop for 30 years, is part of a combined publications office staff of five full-time employees and eight part-time student workers. He uses Heidelberg Saphira perfect dot blankets on the press, plus Heidelberg Saphira chemistry and plates. The new POLAR cutter is working out well for Winona’s print shop. "So far, I love it," Johnson said. "It’s exactly what we needed."
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
With a global market share for sheetfed offset printing machines of more than 40 percent, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is the world's leading solution provider for commercial and industrial customers in the print media industry. Headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, the Company focuses on the entire process and value chain for popular format classes in the sheetfed offset and flexographic printing sectors. Apart from printing presses, the product portfolio includes plate imaging devices and finishing equipment, as well as software components designed to integrate all print manufacturing processes. In addition, Heidelberg offers a wide range of spare parts, consumables, used equipment and services, along with extensive training programs provided by the Print Media Academy. Furthermore, the Company assists its customers- investment plans by offering financing concepts.
Heidelberg is most active within the major OECD industrial regions and is expanding its involvement within growing markets such as Asia and Eastern Europe. With development and production sites in six countries and some 250 sales offices world-wide, the Company offers services to more than 200,000 customers around the globe. Heidelberg generates 85 percent of global sales through company-owned sales offices and well above 80 percent outside of Germany. In fiscal year 2006/2007, Heidelberg achieved sales of Euro 3.803 billion referring to the divisions Press, Postpress and Financial Services as well as a net profit of Euro 263 million.
As of March 31, 2007, the Group employed 19,171 staff worldwide.
Editorial Contact:
Manning Selvage & Lee
Lelia King
+1 404-870-6844
E-mail:
lelia.king@mslpr.com
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