Heidelberg Technologies Help Printers Get Ahead – from Prepress to Postpress and Beyond

King Printing Installs First Heidelberg Press
When the owners of King Printing Co. in Lowell, MA set out to upgrade their company’s technology, they turned to the best in the business. As part of the upgrade, the family-owned book manufacturer installed a 5-color Speedmaster CD 74 perfector from Heidelberg in March. The new press, which replaces an older competitive model, also features an inline coating unit for aqueous coatings, extended delivery and the suitable DryStar Combination Dryer. “We increased the capacity in our pressroom to maintain and improve our company’s reputation for fast turnaround,” says Adi Chinai, joint managing director. He added that while the company still is ramping up production on the new machine, it already has experienced a significant increase in productivity, based on the number of jobs produced per shift on the new press. The press is used primarily for components printing: covers, inserts and endsheets. Among perfect, mechanical and hard cover binding lines, the company’s in-house bindery also operates Heidelberg stitchers and cutters. Established in 1978, King Printing serves the educational and trade book markets, providing university presses and educational publishers with books in quantities from 100 to 50,000. With sales volume “in the double-digit millions,” says Chinai, “We’ve carved out a niche catering to short-run, quick-turnaround customers requiring fast time-to-market.” In that respect, he adds, “Heidelberg equipment is very robust and serves us extremely well.”