Blue Star Group’s web heatset division Blue Star WEB has become the first commercial printer in the Asia-Pacific to install the Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106-10-P+LX-LEUV colour perfector with coater.
A team of expert local Heidelberg engineers and electricians installed the 26 metre, 93 tonne machine at the Blue Star facility in Sydney in 28 days. Blue Star WEB built a fully enclosed and temperature controlled room to house the machine.
“Everybody claims they have the biggest and fastest machine in Australia and the latest acquisition made by Blue Star WEB is just that,” said Richard Timson, MD, Heidelberg Australia. “Heidelberg’s expert printing instructors worked closely with the Blue Star WEB team and the Heidelberg consumables technical team to deliver the press on time. Blue Star WEB is already into double shift production and we're extremely pleased with the performance of everyone involved and the machine, which is a fantastic example of precision Heidelberg engineering."
Timson said Heidelberg's focus in the pre-planning stage was to ensure Blue Star WEB had the most effective consumables package for a smooth start up. "This involved a lot of investigative work including seeking information from Heidelberg customers in Europe and Japan," he said. "We also conducted tests in the Heidelberg showroom to establish the right consumables to achieve the perfect start-up.”
Blue Star Group CEO Matt Aitken is more than happy with the results. “We’re delighted with the Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106-10 and are excited about the opportunities it provides for our customers. Blue Star WEB has a strong future and Blue Star is committed to investing in that future, just as we are across all of our operations.”
Blue Star WEB is the market leader in state-of-the-art publication, catalogue, brochure and corporate web heatset printing for Australia’s leading magazine titles, publishers and businesses.
“The Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106-10 offers single pass productivity which not only enables our production team to produce high quality and high speed work, but also gives us the flexibility to handle both high output and small production batches,” said Darryl Meyer, GM Blue Star WEB.
The XL106-10 has been purposely designed to produce the widest range of products with a maximum speed of 15,000 sph. The machine has the capacity to print on a wide stock range from 0.03mm to 0.8mm, further enhancing its capabilities and the opportunities for Blue Star WEB. It's been specified with up to five drying lamps and is able to run with both Low Energy and Hi Energy UV lamps. This enables Blue Star WEB to produce a wide range of products with all work completely dry as it exits the press and is moved to the bindery.
Other features include the Interdeck dryers, which are capable of being moved to any position along the ten printing units to suit special work, and the end of press dryers. These dryers are equipped with three lamps following the coating tower and are capable of drying high gloss coating at the maximum speed with the minimum power. As is the case with most of the new Heidelberg presses, this press is fitted with the Heidelberg Inpress spectrophotometric inline colour measuring system for measurement and press register combined with the autoplate pro-plate mounting.
With the patented Heidelberg Hycolor dampening system and Saphira High reactive inks, the printing is as stable as conventional printing. Blue Star WEB is able to print with the same print characteristics as conventional inks with a small learning curve for the operators to adapt to the new technology.
The Heidelberg Saphira consumables package allows high speed printing on both sides of the sheet with high quality, instantly dry sheets with full UV Gloss and with full piles. Heidelberg Saphira products featured in the Blue Star WEB package include:
- Toyo Low Energy UV Inks (supplied by Heidelberg)
- Saphira UV and conventional coatings
- Saphira Blankets
- Saphira LE UV wash up solutions
- Saphira long life ink duct foils
Blue Star Group, a division of IVE Group, employs 1,000 people across its operations in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, and includes Blue Star PRINT, Blue Star DIRECT, Blue Star WEB, Blue Star DISPLAY, Blue Star PROMOTE and Blue Star CONNECT.
IVE Group is an integrated marketing and print communication provider, encompassing four divisions: Blue Star, IVEO, Kalido and Pareto.