AMP Invests in a Speedmaster XL 106 UV Perfector to Secure a Competitive Advantage

“There was never an issue with our name, reputation or the quality of our work, just with what it cost us in terms of the time and labor needed to sustain that level of excellence,” Main continued. “No matter how hard or how long we worked, we just couldn’t compete on productivity. We made up our mind to retool and update our pressroom in order to work faster and more efficiently while growing the business.”

Doing as well as the competition wasn’t an option. “We wanted to lead, not follow,” Main said.

An Eye-Opening Experience
That quest ultimately led AMP’s management team to visit Heidelberg’s factory in Wiesloch, Germany, and to tour a number of Europe’s most progressive printing facilities. What Main saw caused him to rethink his original investment plans.

“It wasn’t until we saw the new technology of the XL 106 that we decided to invest in a brand-new UV press,” he revealed. “It was immediately clear that no other press manufacturer could beat the XL 106 in terms of print quality, speed, performance and ease of use.”

The fact was, AMP had never bought a new Heidelberg press before, let alone a two-sided UV perfector.

“Had you asked me a year ago if I’d ever buy a perfector, I would have said no, given the subpar perfecting capabilities of some older equipment I’d seen,” Main said. “When I went to Germany to view the XL 106 in action, I never imagined that I would wind up buying a perfector. But the technology and the quality exceeded all my expectations. Heidelberg has absolutely perfected the perfecting press.”

For Main, the overseas trip was a revelation in more ways than one. “When we saw European printers running demanding automotive catalogs at full speed, we realized that the quality would match our standards,” he explained, “but what really sealed the deal were the unbelievably fast makereadies enabled by the new technology. We saw setups that took well under 10 minutes—and that was for getting color and register on both sheet sides. The XL 106 perfector is truly revolutionary and a total mind-changer in my case. It’s the best investment this company has ever made.”

Thanks to automated features like Prinect Inpress Control and AutoPlate XL, AMP will be able to address its productivity issue by expanding its capacity, attracting additional high-end work, and by producing many more jobs per day—most in just one press pass. This will streamline press checks, as well as enable a customer to walk out the door with a finished sample after just one setup.

“We’re already known for our ability to produce high-end UV projects on a wide range of synthetic substrates,” Main reported. “The XL 106 is as versatile as we are; we’ll be able to run it as a straight 10-color press or a 5/5 double-coating machine. And it’s fast—you have to see it running flawlessly at 15,000 sph in perfecting mode to believe it can be done.