During October, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) organized a series of "Special Application Days" for small and medium formats at its Heidelberg and Wiesloch sites. These were attended by around 350 visitors from around the globe, and in particular from Asia and northern and eastern Europe. They saw how smaller format classes (35 x 50 centimeter and 50 x 70 centimeter) too offer excellent opportunities to make production of special print products more attractive, efficient and profitable. “Now more than ever, maintaining customer loyalty and carving out new markets is all about offering customers innovative products and a unique level of service. Through its Special Application Days Heidelberg is able to demonstrate how state-of-the-art prepress and printing technologies, coating expertise and extensive experience in postpress can be used to produce truly effective print products. Print service providers can learn how they can make their products stand out from the crowd,” explains Dr. Jürgen Rautert, Director for Engineering and Manufacturing at Heidelberg, emphasizing the primary goal behind the event. Highlights of the presentations included the various options for inline finishing on the Speedmaster SM 52 with coating unit and inline die-cutting unit, various coating technologies using UV, hybrid and conventional processes for all small and medium format applications, and the introduction of the long perfectors Speedmaster 52-8P and Speedmaster CD 74-8P with coating unit upstream of the delivery. The event also focussed on packaging and label production through flexographic and offset printing on the Speedmaster CD 74 Duo, and the use of the new Cutstar sheeter for the Speedmaster CD 74 with the sure-fire benefits its brings for optimizing material usage and boosting productivity. At the end of each two-day event, participants were given the opportunity to see the technologies already demonstrated in Heidelberg and Wiesloch at first hand. Trips arranged to nearby Heidelberg customers provided visitors with access to real-life scenarios and a source of ideas for use in their own business models.