Recent Installations Report Success with Solutions from Heidelberg

Kennesaw, GA—Aug. 3, 2009—Heidelberg USA announces the following new product installations:

Presswrite Installs New Press and Cutter from Heidelberg

Presswrite Printing in Minneapolis, MN has upgraded its pressroom and bindery with state-of-the-art technology from Heidelberg. The company’s new Printmaster 52 2-color perfector replaces an aging Heidelberg GTO press, while a new high-speed POLAR 92X guillotine has taken over for a smaller cutter with its best years behind it. Both machines have been in production since March of this year.

In business for 25 years, Presswrite is a $4 million commercial printer with 11 employees that specializes in short-run, quick-turn projects for a client base that includes fast food and medical companies nationwide. According to owner Alan Goltzman, his company logged a 10 percent growth rate in 2008, and is on track to repeat that performance in 2009 thanks, in part, to the arrival of the new press and cutter.

The new Printmaster 52 “performs at least 50 percent faster on a lot of the quick production work we do, unless we’re doing two sides at a time - in which case we’re roughly three times as fast,” Goltzman said, adding that it isn’t unusual for the company to turn jobs around in the space of a single day. As for the new POLAR cutter, he said, “We needed a larger one with a bigger throat, greater depth and much faster speed, that would streamline our workflow. The air tables on the new cutter give us plenty of surface area to move the product around. It’s truly the heart of our shop, since all of the paper we use hits it twice.”

The new Printmaster 52 shares the Presswrite pressroom with the company’s existing Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52 perfector, QMDI Pro and Windmill letterpress. In the prepress department, a Heidelberg violet Prosetter with MetaDimension RIP anchors the shop’s prepress workflow, while the company bindery also hosts a Stahlfolder B20 folder. Presswrite uses a variety of Heidelberg Saphira prepress and pressroom consumables, including Saphira violet plates and chemistry.

The Printmaster GTO 52: variety and reliability in action. For more information about the POLAR 92X, click here.

Mele Printing Cites “Huge” Improvement After Upgrading Bindery with Heidelberg Equipment

Mele Printing in Covington, LA, is thrilled with the newest additions to its full-service bindery: a high-speed programmable POLAR 137 XT cutter with Autotrim and a Stahlfolder TH 82 16-page signature folder, installed earlier this year.

According to Mallery Mele, president, the new POLAR 137 XT, which replaced an older POLAR 137, has increased the company’s cutting capacity by 15-20 percent thanks largely to the addition of the Autotrim automatic waste removal system and Transomat automated off-loading unit. Likewise, the new Stahlfolder TH 82 has slashed Mele’s makeready time by half, a “huge” improvement that has enabled the company to complete two or three additional jobs per shift and cut down on error by storing and recalling the most intricate folds, Mele said.

Inside and outside of the bindery, Mele is an all-Heidelberg shop that also operates a Speedmaster SM 102 6-color press with aqueous coater, a Speedmaster CD 74 5-color press with aqueous coater, Axis Control and Color Assistant – “the cornerstone of our shop,” Mele said – four Printmaster QM 46 2-color presses, a Eurobind 600 adhesive binder, a Stitchmaster ST 90 saddlestitcher, and a Stahlfolder B20 folder, installed new last year. The CD 74 is under Heidelberg's System Service full service program that includes remote diagnostics and on-site preventative maintenance inspection performed every 10 months. The company uses a variety of Heidelberg Saphira consumables in its pressroom.

Established in 1985, Mele Printing is a general commercial printer and mailer with a client base located throughout the Gulf Coast, New Orleans and Baton Rouge area. With 50 employees and annual sales of $7.4 million, the company values its longtime association with Heidelberg. “The quality of Heidelberg equipment is beyond question,” Mele said. “The support we get is fantastic. Heidelberg is a great company, especially on the service side.”

Cut to the chase with the POLAR 137 XT cutting system.

Jano Graphics Opts for Benefits of Heidelberg XL Press Technology

Jano Graphics recently installed a new Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75, 5-color, 29” press equipped with Prinect Press Center technology at its printing plant in Ventura, CA. Catering to advertising agencies, universities, and corporations, the company replaced a pair of aging presses when it purchased the XL 75 in June. The advanced technology of the XL 75 was of major importance to Jano Graphics in the company’s purchasing decision.

“Prinect technology enables faster makereadies, reduces job cycle times and significantly reduces makeready waste,” said Larry Embley, director of sales and marketing. “For Jano, this translates into lower costs, increased capacity, and ‘greener efficiency’.”

Another key factor, said Embley, was the XL 75’s larger sheet format, compared to other presses in the mid-size category. “Our ability to print an 11x25.5”, 6-panel brochure 2-up on our 29” press gives us a price advantage in our local marketplace,” he explains. As Jano Graphics makes the turn toward establishing an “all-Heidelberg” plant, the Speedmaster XL 75 is a key addition to its pressroom, which already houses a Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102, six-color 40” press.

“Heidelberg is a brand that commands respect in the printing industry,” said Joe Jannone, pressroom manager. “Its reputation for durability and technological superiority is unsurpassed and their customer care has exceeded my expectations.”

The Speedmaster XL 75. What’s not to love?

Dothan Printing Selects Suprasetter A52 To “Go A Little Greener”

Dothan Printing & Litho, Inc. in Dothan, AL, recently augmented its prepress department with a Suprasetter A52 CtP device from Heidelberg. The new platesetter joins the company’s existing Prosetter 52, but adds the convenience and low maintenance of chemistry-free thermal technology. Most important, said company president Tim Rhodes, the new platesetter enables Dothan “to run a little greener.” While Dothan continues to use its Prosetter violet platesetter, it has transferred the bulk of its platemaking—an average of 800-900 plates per month—to the new Suprasetter, which anchors a Heidelberg prepress workflow with MetaDimension RIP and Signa Station imposition station. Dothan also uses Saphira violet and Saphira Chem-free plates in its platemaking devices.

Rhodes, who spent a portion of his career as a NASA engineer, recognizes Heidelberg technology for what it is: solid, sophisticated and reliable, so it’s no accident that the company has been an all-Heidelberg shop almost from the year of its founding in 1961. Today, in addition to the two platesetters, Dothan operates a Speedmaster 52 4-color press and a Printmaster 52 4-color, 2/2 perfecting press, in addition to postpress equipment that includes a Stahlfolder B20 and two Stahlfolder T36 folders with right-angle attachments for pharmaceutical folding. In addition to Saphira-branded thermal and violet plates, the company uses Saphira pressroom consumables including blankets, inks, fountain and wash-up solution, packing materials and more.

Family run Dothan Printing employs a staff of five and serves a client base located within a couple of hundred miles of Dothan AL, with sales into Georgia and Florida. The general commercial printer takes pride in running “lean and automated,” Rhodes said, the result of adding the right kind of technology at the right time. Of course the quality of the equipment is a given,” said the former NASA engineer, “but service is a big reason Heidelberg sells a lot of equipment to small companies like ours. We’ll be doing business with them for a long time.”

For more on the Suprasetter A52 platesetter, click here.

Daily Printing Hedges Its Bet with Varimatrix Die Cutter

Daily Printing Inc., a specialty, high-quality commercial printer in Plymouth, MN, reports the installation of a Heidelberg Varimatrix 105 CS (cutting and stripping) die cutter, which it purchased to supplement an older, much slower machine.

While the company retains its existing die cutter, “We bought the 7,500 per hour Varimatrix as a kind of insurance policy against the day when the older machine would not be able to keep up with our throughput,” said company president Peter Jacobson, who explains that both die cutters now run full time across one shift, turning out POP materials, pocket folders, packaging, direct mail, and performing perfing and scoring in run lengths from 2,000-5,000 pieces for a variety of local retail and manufacturing customers. “Not only is the Varimatrix faster and more efficient,” Jacobson adds, “but it’s also a lot quieter, which our operators definitely appreciate.”

Daily Printing’s all-Heidelberg pressroom is home to a 6-color Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105, a 2-color Speedmaster SM 102 perfector, a 6-color Speedmaster CD 74, and a pair of 6-color Heidelberg CD 102s. The new Varimatrix 105 shares the company’s bindery with an assortment of Stahl continuous-feed folders, a Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST 400 6-pocket saddlestitcher, and a variety of POLAR cutters and cutting systems. In the prepress department, a Heidelberg Suprasetter thermal platesetter anchors the Heidelberg Prinect prepress workflow. According to Jacobson, the company is “slowly but surely” turning to Heidelberg Saphira consumables usage, based on results obtained thus far.

“Quality and service keep us coming back to Heidelberg,” Jacobson said. “It really is as simple as that.”

High productivity, flexible applications: Varimatrix CS.

Coeur Noir “Casts A Wider Net” with Printmaster QM 46-2 from Heidelberg

Coeur Noir, Inc., a boutique specialty printer doing business in Brooklyn, NY for the past seven years, has taken the outsourcing bull by the horns and installed a Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46 2-color press. The purchase enables the company to perform short-run (500-5,000), high-quality, mostly spot-color work without going outside to find a trade printer willing to take on such jobs at a reasonable price.

“We definitely prefer having the ability to control both the quality of the work and the turnaround times,” said the company’s co-founder, Konstantin Grab. “Having the QM 46 makes it possible for us to cast a wider net in terms of the services we offer our customers—and the quality of the printing is on a par with the high standards we set for ourselves and our customers expect us to meet.”

Originally established as a letterpress shop, Coeur Noir has steadily expanded the scope of its services to include all kinds of specialty printing processes including foil stamping and engraving, and the company’s reputation already is such that it is able to promote itself solely through word-of-mouth. In contemplating the purchase of an offset press, therefore, Coeur Noir was not about to take any chances. “It was the quality of the equipment that drew us to Heidelberg, and it's always been the quality of our work that keeps our customers coming back,” Grab said. The company currently is working its way through a starter kit of Saphira consumables provided when it installed the new press.

Elsewhere in its 2,000-square-foot shop, Coeur Noir operates a variety of letterpresses, including a 1965 Heidelberg “red-ball” Windmill. The company employs a permanent staff of three, including Grab himself, and serves a loyal clientele based primarily in the New York City area.

Good things come in small packages. Click here to learn more about the Printmaster QM 46.

Speedmaster XL 75 Sends Ewing Printing Off to the Races

Ewing Printing Company, a general commercial printer in Vincennes, IN is the proud owner of a new, fully automated Speedmaster XL 75 from Heidelberg, installed in March in the company’s newly expanded facility. According to company president Jim Zeigler, the company badly needed to upgrade its pressroom capacity, previously represented by a pair of aging Speedmaster SM 72 presses, neither of which offered automated features that now come standard on newer models.

“The name of the game these days is, ‘I need it tomorrow’,” Zeigler said. “On top of that, we literally have to be all things to all people. We print it and mail it! That’s easier with the aid of the automated features on the new XL 75, which give us the control to be able to meet our customers’ demands. It’s enabled us to run to GATF standards, and it’s a cleaner, nicer press to run. Going from no automation to full automation in one fell swoop means we’re still learning about the capabilities of the XL 75. We already appreciate that it prints faster and more efficiently, and we expect our facility with the press—and our productivity—to improve even more over the next few months.”

The Speedmaster XL 75 also has improved Ewing’s scheduling. “Where we used to run by size because we didn’t want to set up the press again, now we just key in the sheet size and are off to the races,” Zeigler said. In addition, the firm can print thicker board stock than it used to, giving it the option of accepting jobs it used to avoid for lack of substrate flexibility on the company’s older presses. Zeigler greatly enjoys the automated wash-up features of the new press, adding, “The press is three times more efficient on the wash-up because everything is metered automatically.”

In Ewing’s pressroom, the Speedmaster XL 75 joins the company’s remaining Speedmaster 72 6-color with UV, two Printmaster QM 46 2-color presses, and a pair of Heidelberg KSBG and KSBA letterpresses as well as two windmills, which Ewing converted into die cutters. The bindery hosts a raft of Heidelberg postpress equipment, including multiple POLAR cutters and Stahlfolders and an Stahl ST-90 Collator-Stitcher-Trimmer. The company has also changed to Heidelberg Saphira ink products with the introduction of the XL 75.

Established in 1918 and with 20 employees, Ewing Printing serves a regional client base made up primarily of commercial and agricultural concerns within 200 miles of Vincennes.

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking: the Speedmaster XL 75.

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 worldwide, 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 above 85 percent outside of Germany. In fiscal year 2007/2008, Heidelberg achieved sales of Euro 3.670 billion referring to the divisions Press, Postpress and Financial Services as well as a net profit of Euro 142 million. As of March 31, 2008, the Group employed 19,596 staff worldwide.