Baldwin set to clean up web presses

Baldwin Technology has signed a worldwide distribution agreement with German manufacturer Hildebrand Systeme, locking in the exclusive global marketing rights for its Jetstream and Jetvac web cleaning systems.

Baldwin vice president Karl Puehringer confirms the agreement as part of the company's move to enhance its competitive position in the worldwide automatic cleaning systems market, currently worth around $250 million per annum. “Baldwin operates on a truly global basis, and we continually examine technologies and solutions that can expand the boundaries and size of the web offset cleaning systems market and our share of it,” he says.

Baldwin Asia Pacific managing director Peter Tkachuk claims that it won't be long before we see the Hildebrand Systeme range in Australia. “The agreement does represent a local pickup, so the Jetstream and Jetvac web cleaning systems will be available in Australia shortly,” he says. “We see the new products as complimenting the existing range of Baldwin equipment, so we'll be putting a strategy in place very soon.”

The Jetstream and Jetvac products will be integrated as an extension of Baldwin's existing automatic cleaning systems product range, meaning that the interval between blanket cleaning can be extended and allow for the use of shorter blanket cleaning programs. Baldwin claims this will increase available press time, and also succeed in reducing the annual consumable and running costs associated with traditional blanket cleaning systems.