The latest Heidelberg installation in the press room of Dresden based SAXOPRINT comes in at 50m: a Speedmaster XL 162 eight-colour perfecting press with the first CutStar roll sheeter in this format in the world. The full flexibility to use sheets or roll-fed stock is now available in 7B format, which significantly reduces makeready times.
This means that SAXOPRINT now has eight printing presses with a total of 36 printing units from Heidelberg: five large format Speedmaster XL 162 presses, one Speedmaster XL 145, and two Speedmaster XL 106 presses, both of which are equipped with the CutStar roll sheeter. ‘We saw the benefits and so entered into negotiations with Heidelberg to include CutStar in the next large format press,’ recalls SAXOPRINT managing director Klaus Sauer.
The experts from Heidelberg and BW Papersystems Stuttgart GmbH spent two years working on the development of CutStar. The Speedmaster XL 162 with CutStar has been in use since January of this year, and Sauer is very impressed: ‘Once again, our partnership with Heidelberg has paid off, and the project was handled with the utmost professionalism by all sides.’
With just one reel change, the same number of sheets is fed as with three to four paper pallets. Fewer makeready and stoppage times as well as uninterrupted operating stability make the new Speedmaster XL 162 at SAXOPRINT nearly twice as efficient. The cutting performance of CutStar has a tolerance of less than 0.3 millimetres, well above that of industrially produced paper stacks. This means that the cut sheets in the delivery can go straight into postpress. The previous step of vibrating against straight edges is no longer necessary.
Another plus is the double-gripper technology in the press delivery. The controlled guide at the front and rear edge guides the sheet reliably from the last printing unit to the delivery pile. These innovations mean that the previously required sheet brakes and therefore the print-free corridors are a thing of the past. The best possible use can be made of the print area. This means that a dozen different jobs or 400 different business cards can be printed on a single sheet of paper with a width of 160 centimetres. ‘We have succeeded in compensating the 10 percent increase in the price of paper through innovations and increased efficiency. This is all the more significant since paper accounts for up to 30 percent of our costs,’ said Sauer.
Heidelberg Graphic Systems SA (Pty) Ltd 0861424756
