Customers Nationwide Invest in Growth with Heidelberg Solutions
10/01/2009
Lead pressman on Walker Printing’s Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor press, Jerry Ealum
Details
Kennesaw, Ga. - Heidelberg USA announces the following new
product installations:
Walker Printing Takes Care of Business with Speedmaster SM 52
Anicolor
The newest addition to Walker Printing's pressroom lineup is
a Speedmaster SM 52 4-color press with Anicolor inking, and it has
made all the difference, according to company president Taylor
Blackwell. Installed three months ago and in full production for
two, the SM 52 Anicolor replaced an existing Speedmaster 74
6-color, a Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46-2, and a digital press.
The contrast between the Anicolor press and the digital
machine it replaced could not be more stark, said Blackwell, who
maintains he was paying substantially more in click charges on the
digital press than he spends on plates for the Anicolor machine.
And the differences extend to service, as well; according to
Walker, the three-year coverage he gets with Heidelberg
Systemservice 36 package beats fixed monthly costs on the digital
machine hands down. In terms of performance, he adds, "Makeready on
the Anicolor machine is ridiculously short; we're up to color in
under 25 sheets." As a consequence, Walker Printing is able to turn
out work faster and more efficiently than ever before, including
magazine covers, postcards, brochures, and a range of commercially
printed products. Unlike its digital predecessor, the Anicolor
machine can handle run lengths that are "all over the place,"
Blackwell explains, from 500 sheets to 50,000 4-color envelopes.
The new Anicolor machine shares Walker's pressroom with a
4-color Speedmaster XL 105, a 2-color Speedmaster SM 52, and an
older 1-color, 28" press. Walker's full-service bindery hosts
cutting, folding and stitching equipment, also from Heidelberg.
Established 60 years ago and currently with 50 employees, the $6
million Montgomery, AL-based Walker Printing serves a national
client base that includes Christian ministries, associations, and
direct mail clients.
Blackwell points to his company's lineup of Heidelberg
equipment with pride. "This is what I do for a living, and I
believe in having the best equipment because it pays off in less
downtime, greater productivity and higher resale value. When the
stakes are high, it doesn't make sense to risk cheaper equipment or
settle for a supplier that doesn't back up what it sells.
Heidelberg gets it right every time."
Short-run champ:
Speedmaster
52 Anicolor .
From front to back, Dan Ray, Prepress Production; Frank Cannataro, Prepress Production; and Tim Dow, Prepress Production.
Details
Paulson Press Runs Clean and Green with Heidelberg Thermal CtP
Device
Paulson Press of Elk Grove Village, IL is getting longer run
lengths, fewer plate remakes and sharper dots since it installed a
Heidelberg Suprasetter 105 thermal CtP device with Heidelberg
workflow and began using Heidelberg Saphira thermal plates earlier
this year. As a result, said vice president Paul Letto, "We're
cleaner, greener and faster. We especially like the processor,
which uses less chemistry than our old violet platesetter and can
go up to two weeks without cleaning."
Couple these prepress improvements with a pressroom lineup
that includes an ultra-productive 41" Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105
6-color press-Paulson was the first printer in Illinois to install
Heidelberg's Peak Performance flagship press-as well as 5- and
2-color 40" Speedmaster SM perfecting presses, and it's no wonder
that Letto can say with confidence that Paulson is well-equipped to
deliver the customer service, quick turnarounds and superior
quality its customers demand. "Heidelberg products stand the test
of time and get the job done every time," he concludes. The
company's full-service bindery also boasts a pair of POLAR paper
cutters and a trio of Stahlfolders.
Established in 1969 and currently with 20 employees, Paulson
Press is a general commercial printer serving primarily commercial
and manufacturing customers throughout the Chicagoland area.
Clean, green, and fast:
Suprasetter
105.
Plant manager, Tim Murray (left), with prepress operator Larry Carpenter.
Details
Litho Press Upgrades Plateroom, Bindery with Heidelberg
Technology
Litho Press, San Antonio, Texas, welcomed spring earlier this
year with the installation of new pre- and postpress equipment from
Heidelberg. The company's prepress department is the beneficiary of
a new Suprasetter 105 computer-to-plate device with Prepress
Interface. In the full-service bindery, POLAR 115XT and POLAR 92X
high-speed paper cutters equipped with jogger, scale, lift and
Transomat offloader have enjoyed an enthusiastic reception from the
company's bindery operators.
According to prepress supervisor Matt Kelly, the faster speed
of the Suprasetter "makes a big difference, and, since the plate
wraps around the drum, we no longer have problems with dust. As a
result, we have virtually eliminated the need to remake spoiled
plates, and we no longer experience problems on press with our
longer runs. We go through 50-80 plates a day and spend less time
doing it." The new Suprasetter also uses less chemistry and is
easier to clean, he said. Heidelberg Saphira thermal plates and
chemistry help ensure reliable results. Finally, while Litho's
press operators were initially skeptical about Heidelberg's Prinect
Prepress Interface, they quickly realized the benefit of
transferring all print-relevant parameters automatically from
prepress to press to the point where now, Kelly said, "they don't
want to run without it." The new cutters also have made an
"incredible difference," he adds. "Our operators love the accuracy
of the cuts and the labor-saving peripherals."
According to Kelly, as a result of the new installations,
"Our productivity has increased significantly at the cutters, in
the plateroom, and on press."
Elsewhere in the shop, Litho Press operates a Heidelberg
Speedmaster SM 102 2-color perfector and a Speedmaster CD 102
5-color perfector, on which the company produces a wide variety of
commercial printing, books and other publications. In addition to
the two new cutters, the company bindery is also home to a
Heidelberg saddlestitcher and a pair of Stahlfolders.
Kelly reserves special praise for Heidelberg's service and
consumables organizations, noting, "Of all the consumables vendors
we've dealt with, Heidelberg is far and away the easiest to work
with. The people are courteous and attentive, and if there's a
problem, they deal with it immediately." Whatever the service
issue, he adds, "Factory-trained Heidelberg technicians show up
promptly and always know what they're doing."
Established in 1962, $4 million Litho Press employs a staff
of 40 and serves a variety of clients throughout the United States.
Full House:
Suprasetter
105 ,
CtP
device, POLAR 115XT,
and
POLAR 92X.
Greenerprinter Equips New Bindery with Postpress Technology by
Heidelberg
When longtime Heidelberg customer Greenerprinter in Berkeley,
CA opened a new facility in 2008, the company aimed to offer new
products and broaden its opportunities in the short-run packaging
market, including custom packaging. Existing bindery equipment
occupied the new finishing building from Halloween 2008, following
which the company commenced installation of an all-new lineup of
bindery and finishing equipment from Heidelberg, including an ST
350 saddlestitcher, TH 82 folder, USA 20 folder, POLAR label and
specialty die cutting machine (DCM), KAMA ProCut 74 platen
die-cutter with foiling, and an ECO 80 folder-gluer.
As a result of the installations, Greenerprinter has virtually
eliminated buyouts, shortened its turn times, and gained full
control of overall quality, enabling the company to offer lower
prices. As a result, said president and CEO Mario Assadi, "We are
now free to explore new products and streamline our internal
production and product development in line with our new
capabilities."
With the ST 350, for example, "We can now offer the highest
quality booklets at a reasonable price. We also were able to
eliminate multiple weekly trips to a vendor across the bay, saving
time, money, and carbon emissions." The new Stahl USA B20 folder,
Assadi adds, "is excellent for small brochures, mailers and
four-pagers, and can be set up in minutes."
In addition, "Our new POLAR DCM produces beautiful
round-corner business cards, circular cards and custom shapes with
a quick changeover at very high production rates," while the KAMA
die cutter and ECO folder-gluer "enable us to do custom
presentation folders, door hangers, foil and embossing."
Greenerprinter serves a national client base consisting of
businesses that are committed to sustainability or interested in
being green. The company's thoroughgoing commitment to the
environment also extends to its use of environmentally friendly
Heidelberg prepress and pressroom consumables to ensure
environmentally compliant production - without incurring any
degradation in quality.
"Heidelberg has always been the leader in new technologies in
printing, prepress and postpress technologies," Assadi confirms.
"They also are a full-service provider with high-quality products
and a heightened sense of social responsibility we also share. It
has been gratifying to work with a partner that believes, as we do,
that business success and good corporate citizenship are not
mutually exclusive."
All the bases covered:
POLAR
DCM,
KAMA
ProCut 74,
ST
350 saddlestitcher,
and
Stahlfolder TH82.
Rainbow Printing Steps Up to Speedmaster XL 75 To Give Customers
What They Want
When customers clamor, Rainbow Printing listens-and then
acts. In response to clients "begging us to get a larger press,"
the erstwhile small-format trade printer purchased and installed a
29" Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 5-color press with aqueous coater,
Inpress color control and integrated Wallscreen in May. Roughly 2.5
million impressions later, said general manager Gary Sanders, the
company views the improvement in its operations as a result of the
installation in terms of waste reduction, improved quality,
additional revenue and new clients.
"The step-up to half-size format represents a step up in
quality for us, since we're now able to print to 200-line screen,"
Sanders said. "Jobs just look better." In addition, "Prinect
Inpress Control has enabled us to reduce our makeready from 300
sheets to 100, saving us hundreds of dollars a day in paper waste,
which is just phenomenal." In addition to dramatically lower
makeready waste, the XL 75's larger format size also permits
Rainbow to print more up on a sheet and to gang work, to the point
where "We've noticed our profitability on the same types of jobs we
used to print on our small-format press has gone up by 8 or 9
percent," he said. Finally, the company has been able to add new
products such as pocket folders, as well as to print on heavier,
board-grade stock.
Elsewhere in its 31,000-square foot shop, Rainbow Printing
operates a Speedmaster SM 52 5-color press with inline coating, a
pair of Heidelberg QM 46 2-color machines, a Heidelberg GTO 2-color
press, and a POLAR 92 guillotine cutter. The company uses assorted
Heidelberg pressroom consumables, including blankets and towels.
As far as Sanders is concerned, "The Heidelberg names
carries weight. When we're approaching new clients, the brand gives
them confidence. Moreover, because our pressmen have been running
Heidelbergs all their lives, training was a breeze. The operators
were already very familiar with the mechanical aspects of the press
and just needed some instruction on the electronics side."
Established in 1974 and with annual revenue in the $4
million range, Rainbow Printing serves the needs of a customer base
located in the region between Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
A step up in every way:
The
Speedmaster XL 75.
Crown Embossing president Edmond Rassi with the company’s new Stahlfolder USA B20 folder.
Details
Crown Embossing and Heidelberg Keep the Customer Satisfied
Crown Embossing, Houston, recently purchased and installed a
20" Stahlfolder USA B20 continuous-feed folder with right-angle
attachment and attachments for scoring, perfing and slitting, as
well as a refurbished Heidelberg SBDZ cylinder press configured for
foil stamping and embossing. According to company president Edmond
Rassi, the installations were undertaken in response to customer
demand for services not widely available in the Houston area,
primarily 40" foil stamping and embossing.
"Our aim was to give our customers what they wanted, not to
have to turn work away, and to establish ourselves as a premier
finisher in the Houston area," Rassi said. "With a full range of
finishing capabilities in-house and a well-established specialty in
foil stamping and embossing, we're well positioned to provide
services the competition can't; in fact, a number of our
competitors already have sent us jobs they aren't equipped to
handle." As a result, he said, "We're starting to expand our
regional coverage as far as San Antonio and Austin."
The new Stahlfolder handles "anything that needs folding,"
Rassi said, citing the B20's outstanding flexibility, fold quality
and productivity that enables Crown to turn most jobs within 24
hours. "For us, the right angle attachment completes this folder
the way milk goes with cereal, and the DCT 500 digital control unit
really makes the machine run smoothly. We couldn't ask for a more
efficient, small-format solution to our folding needs," he said.
Sixty-year-old Crown Embossing has always owned Heidelberg
equipment and can't imagine doing business without it, Rassi said.
"Heidelberg has been in our family for years," he said. "I cut my
teeth on a Heidelberg," he quipped.
For anything that needs folding, the
Heidelberg
Stahlfolder USA B20.
Heidelberg Figures Prominently in Texas Shop's Master Plan for
Growth
Q's Printing and Design, a growth-minded small business
commercial and trade printer and doing business in San Angelo,
Texas, recently installed a pair of Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46
2-color presses to help handle a sharply increasing volume of
commercial printing. According to company vice president Randy
Marshall, the net effect of the new press installations has been
"to take a good operator and make him almost twice as productive,
due to the high level of automation."
The twin QM 46-2s, which replace a pair of competitive
small-format machines, are the most recent acquisitions for Q's
Printing and Design, which also installed a POLAR 92 paper cutter,
a Stahlfolder USA B20 with right-angle attachment and a Prosetter
52 computer-to-plate device with Heidelberg workflow within the
past year. The company uses Heidelberg Saphira consumables
including Saphira violet plates and chemistry, Saphira low-tack ink
sets and alcohol-free fountain solution.
"All of the Heidelberg Saphira consumables we've tried have
been first-rate," Marshall said. "The 4-color ink sets, in
particular, have given me the ability to push colors farther than
ever before on our existing 4-tower press and correct any color
problems we might have. I can hit colors quickly and print saleable
color in a hurry. The more I use Saphira consumables, the more
impressed I am."
The $1.4 million company, which employs a staff of six and
serves a clientele located primarily in Texas and the southwest
regional U.S., currently is preparing to relocate to a new, larger
facility in San Angelo. "We're an outstanding little shop and we
look forward to nothing but growth," Marshall said. "We expect that
Heidelberg will continue to play an important role in our future."
Mighty mite:
Printmaster
QM 46.
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen
A technology provider and partner in the print media industry
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is with its
sheetfed offset printing machines one of the leading solution
providers for the print media industry. All over the world, the
name Heidelberg is synonymous with state-of-the art technology, top
quality, and closeness to the customer. The core business of this
technology group covers the whole value-added and process chain for
the 35 x 50 cm (13.78 x 19.69 in) to 121 x 162 cm (47.64 x 63.78
in) format classes in the sheetfed offset sector.
Heidelberg develops and produces precision printing presses,
platesetters, postpress equipment, and software for integrating all
the printshop processes. Environmental protection has an enduring
importance in this regard. Solutions for the development,
production, and utilization of presses help to conserve resources,
reduce emissions, and cut wastage. The Heidelberg portfolio also
provides general and consulting services ranging from spare parts
and consumables to the sale of remarketed equipment, and training
at the Print Media Academy.
Based in Heidelberg, Germany, with development and production
sites in seven countries and around 250 sales offices across the
globe, the company supports around 200,000 customers worldwide. All
Heidelberg presses destined for the world market are manufactured
at the Wiesloch-Walldorf site in line with strict quality
standards. Standardized presses in all standard format classes and
folding machines for the Chinese market are produced by Heidelberg
in Qingpu near Shanghai.
Heidelberg presses worldwide produce high-quality print
products such as business cards, brochures, posters, and folding
cartons.
In financial year 2008/2009, Heidelberg recorded sales of EUR
2.999 billion. As at March 31, 2009, the Heidelberg Group had a
workforce of 18,926 worldwide, including 707 trainees.
Media contacts:
Tim Henschel
Manager, Public Relations Heidelberg USA, Inc.
+1-770-419-6554
timothy.henschel@heidelberg.com
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