Vega Press welcomes Stahlfolder KH82 into the fold

Melbourne’s Vega Press installs Australia’s first Stahlfolder KH82 universal folding machine from Heidelberg.

The 50-year-old company, which took out this year’s Premier Sustainability Award, decided to purchase the KH82 for its ability to reduce make-ready times by up to 80 per cent.

“The KH82 is a highly automated machine and is ideal for the volume of bookwork we have. When I saw it demonstrated at drupa (2008) the speed of the machine and the consistency of the output was phenomenal. It impressed me immediately,” said managing director, Peter Gude.

“Any machine that can deliver productivity to your operation has to be considered, particularly in the current economic environment where every saving is counted.”

Heidelberg provided training for Vega Press operators who found the machine easy to use. “It is so advanced and the benefits to the whole process are obvious,” added Gude. “You can go from one imposition to another very quickly, which is essential when you are producing a variety of work.”

The KH82 has also delivered greater flexibility as it is able to produce certain folds that buckle fold machines are unable to achieve, such as folding a 32pp section (A5) as opposed to buckle folders, which can only manage 16pp. Vega Press runs the KH82 at between 10,000-12,000 signatures an hour.

“Being able to put through double the quantity of pages delivers considerable time saving benefits. We do a lot of this type of work and it is a great advantage to be able to produce work so efficiently, and fast,” Gude said.

“The speed of this machine is in sync with the press which enables us to realise productivity and efficiency gains.”