The latest addition to Milan-based Grafiche Pizzi is a new Speedmaster XL 106 two-colour press with perfecting, equipped with a CutStar roll sheeter.
Grafiche Pizzi is a long-established Italian company based in Milan, which specialises in printed products for the pharmaceutical industry. It has invested in Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) solutions as a way of targeting sustainable growth in the pharmaceuticals business, in both the press and postpress segments.
‘We took over the company in 2013, and our mission is sustainable growth,’ explained Managing Director Paola Pantaleoni. The new Speedmaster XL 106 features the company’s third CutStar, and joins a Speedmaster XL 106-6+L and Speedmaster XL 106-4-P in the pressroom. These two presses are also equipped with a CutStar.
‘The biggest benefit CutStar offers us is the high level of flexibility when using lower paper grammages than in the past. We now process lightweight papers with 32g/sqm compared with the 40-70g/sqm paper normally used. Another plus point is the ability to optimise paper consumption by trimming the paper to the necessary formats, which reduces waste,’ said Paola Pantaleoni. ‘The new Speedmaster, which prints at a speed of 18,000 sheets per hour and is equipped with CutStar, and the connection to prepress with the Prinect workflow and Polar cutting systems have significantly increased our production capacity.’
With CutStar, cheaper rolls that are trimmed directly to the desired format can be fed inline to the sheetfed offset press. The CutStar can be integrated in all Speedmaster models from 50 x 70cm to 70 x 100cm. The required cut-off format can be adjusted anywhere between 40 centimetres and the maximum sheet cut-off length of the press. The roll sheeter processes a wide range of very lightweight paper grammages and extremely thin foils. The high level of automation and the control panel adapted to the press make the CutStar especially easy to operate.
‘With the CutStar, we offer industrialised markets the ability to combine the lower costs of roll-fed stock and the flexibility of sheetfed offset printing with the shortest makeready times, and in this way achieve high productivity,’ said Rainer Wolf, Head of Sheetfed Product Management at Heidelberg. ‘We are therefore continuing to invest in this important technology, and will be presenting an enhancement to it in the near future.’
Two thirds of all the CutStars installed worldwide are on long perfecting presses. A total of 75 per cent of presses with CutStar are in use in commercial printing, while the rest are in companies that print foils and thin materials. Several units are already installed in Italy, especially in printing companies specialising in labels and the pharmaceuticals segment. Their investments have often already doubled and tripled.
Heidelberg Graphic Systems Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd
+27 (0) 86 142 4756
warren.jones@heidelberg.com
www.heidelberg.com/za
