Automation on Heidelberg’s XL VLF Series Presses Achieves Systematically Shorter Makeready Times

Customers the world over repeatedly attest to the validity of Heidelberg’s claims in this regard.

In the United States, Proteus Packaging’s (Franklin, WI) executive vice president and CEO Tim Wayman observed, “Even at high speeds, the feed table with central suction belt adjusts automatically to the format and printing stock, greatly minimizing our makeready times. Prinect Inpress Control permits faster inking up and eliminates the need to stop the press for sheet pulls and color measurements, dramatically reducing our setup waste.”

Likewise, said Tom Frankowski, senior vice president of manufacturing for the Quad/Graphics plant in Radzymin, Poland, which installed the country’s first Speedmaster XL 162 with Prinect Inpress Control in 2010: “The key success factor is to produce the highest quality available with the lowest possible paper waste. This is crucial for the environment and the balance sheet. The Heidelberg VLF press was designed to meet these requirements. Our machine operators call the Speedmaster VLF press ‘a printing machine for printers’ because there is no other press in the market that meets the needs of printers in a better way—it is fast, reliable and easy to handle—all at the same time.”

Shortly after the 2010 installation of a six-color Speedmaster XL 145 with dual coating and integrated material logistics at Karl Knauer KG in Biberach, Germany in 2010, Production Manager Gerhard Kammerer noted that the company had stipulated that the new press should be ready to produce packaging orders after 250 makeready sheets, representing a considerable savings in time and material for average run lengths of 7,000 sheets. “We are still performing optimization tests to raise the efficiency of the machine further still,” Kammerer said at the time, “but we have already achieved a 30 percent improvement in capacity over the previous machine.”

Elimination of Makeready Steps
Standard features on the 57” Speedmaster XL VLF 145 and 64” VLF 162 include: