High-speed printing on display at Printscape

There are now three of the top-of-the range, large format presses in Australia (contracts have been signed for seven) with the first New Zealand machine set to go into Soar Print in Auckland. The high-productivity machine is leading Heidelberg’s current increased marketshare success in the region.

The third annual Printscape at the Sydney showroom concentrated on live demonstrations of a wide range of equipment, including the new Varimatrix 105 die-cutter. Alistair Hadley, director and general manager sales, Heidelberg Australia and New Zealand (pictured) instructed and entertained the heavyweight audience, which represented many of the top flight commercial printers in the industry.

Designed to illustrate how Heidelberg covers the entire production process, the equipment currently on display (for the next three weeks) includes a Suprasetter CTP device as well as a Stahlfolder, a Polar Cutting System and a Stitchmaster ST 350. All the equipment was networked through Printect and functioned to CIP4 integration from start to finish.

The highlight of the night was running the XL105 at top speed, completing a change over from paper to board. With just one operator at the controls the highly automated six colour plus coater introduced the audience to the latest in high productivity printing.

One dampener on the proceedings came with the announcement that an open house day had to be cancelled due to a poor response from local printers. Despite putting a brave face on it a Heidelberg spokesman questioned why printers would not take advantage of the opportunity to see a complete high-technology printing factory in operation. “Perhaps our customers are too busy making money, he said.