Heidelberg makes it bigtime in half-sheet sector

In what was once perceived as the barren plains of the printing landscape, the industry is now seeing a strong resurgence in the A2 market. This is largely due to a refocus by customers defining a profitable niche in the half sheet market and the advances in press technology, the prime example being Heidelberg's CD74 (pictured right) - a press which has literally turned this end of the market on its head.

With the ability to print light weight papers through to heavy board, the CD74 enables printers to meet short run demands of the market and, at the same time, expand their range of services to include packaging, magazine covers and book work.

“This kind of versatility puts the A2 market on a more competitive playing field,” says Alastair Hadley, general manager - sales and company director with Heidelberg Australia and New Zealand. “The release of the CD74 has really revitalised the A2 sector. The flexibility of the press coupled with the perfecting, coating and UV options has really hit the mark with both Australian and New Zealand printers.”

“In Australia the average run length is around 4000 so print speed doesn't necessarily factor into the equation, whereas quick make-ready and turnaround times do. The CD74 is incredibly fast in this respect. It is truly a benchmark press for the A2 segment.”

Bowden hits the A2 market in Adelaide


With the installation of a Heidelberg CD74-5-C, Bowden Printing in Adelaide has been able to bring back in-house the A2 work it used to outsource. With 75% of its work coming from this market segment, the CD74 has significantly contributed to the health of the company's bottom line.

(L to R: Peter Jelfs from Bowden Printing, Robert Harris from Heidelberg and Ian Bowden from Bowden Printing)

Ian Bowden, managing director: “Before the installation, we outsourced 30% of our A2 work... With the new press we can now manage a range of jobs that in the past were out of our reach.”

The features on Bowden Printing's CD74 include the Prinect Prepress Interface, which seamlessly links the CD74 with prepress workflow systems and gets print up to colour quickly with less waste. “Being able to programme the press at prepress stage enables us to consistently change from one four colour job to the next and produce saleable sheets in 15 minutes. That's remarkably fast and our customers have been suitably impressed.”

The A2 market in Adelaide is extremely competitive, he says. “We are operating on tight margins, but with the time saving features on the CD74 we now have the ability to be competitive.”

Six-colour perfecting

Dave Morris, managing director, Graphitype Printing Services in Sydney, says the company's CD74-6-P which was installed just over 12 months ago has made “… a tremendous difference to the speed we turn over work. It's exceptionally fast and produces consistent quality which is essential in what is a highly competitive, tight market environment.

"We've seen a very bitter price war in Sydney this year. We've been able to compete because of the fast make-readies and speed of the CD74 combined with the consistent quality and service we deliver to our customers.”

The Graphitype press is optioned with a perfecting unit, which Morris says is an additional bonus for the long run jobs they do. “We have found the perfecting unit gives us lots of versatility. We have a couple of clients for which the total job is around 1.2 million forms. This is where the perfecting unit comes into its own.”

Graphitype sends a variety of stock through the press from thin 50gsm pharmaceutical leaflets which Morris says, “run exceptionally well at high speed,” to thick board over 500gsm for cartons which “goes through without issue even on wrong grain.”

Packaging powerhouse

Jonathan Flett, production manager at PakWorld in Christchurch New Zealand (pictured right), says that on viewing the CD74 at PacPrint 2001 the press literally changed the direction of his company.

“Seeing the CD74 in Melbourne in 2001 really made us think about the future direction of our business. My brother and I are both in our thirties so we wanted to invest in a press that would take us well into the future. We knew our existing equipment was getting tired. So we took the plunge and bought a brand new CD74 and we literally haven't looked back.”

Taking the plunge involved not only the purchase of the CD74-5+L-F, but a move into new premises and a re-branding exercise that has placed PakWorld at the top of the packaging print market in New Zealand.

“Packaging has always been our focus, but the CD74 really took us to a different level. It was our first press with a coating unit as well so the production challenges we had previously were literally gone overnight.”

Re-branding the company and demonstrating its new capabilities by inviting customers into the factory to view the press has paid off handsomely for the company, which is now putting through 200% more work.

Quality Guarantee is the key

Tony Hampton, of Hampton Press in Mulgrave (Vic) has only one word for his CD74-5-F; “brilliant.”

“It's the quality guarantee we get from the CD74 that's been invaluable. We do a huge range of jobs, from small sheet sizes to large, from thinner weight paper all the way to thick board and the flexibility of the machine is remarkable. The ability to change jobs very quickly and to print perfectly on every thickness and size of paper gives us the flexibility and guarantee of quality that we need to sell in the market segment we are in.”

In conclusion, Hadley says the growth has only just begun for this segment. “We believe the A2 market will continue to grow. In fact we are seeing an escalation right now that can be directly attributed to the release of the perfecting unit for the CD74 at PacPrint this year. It's quite an explosion of activity. There is no doubt in my mind the CD74 is setting the direction for the future of A2 printing in our region.”