Kennesaw, GA - "Heidelberg is the only multicolor press we've ever owned," said Brian Kosineski, Vice President of Benchemark Printing in Schenectady, NY. That's hardly surprising, given that little more than one month since it commenced production on a new Speedmaster CD 102 6-color press with coating unit, the company has logged more than 1.5 million impressions and gained the ability to perform high-quality commercial sheetfed, POP and display work at faster speeds and with a greater degree of flexibility and color accuracy than ever before. The new press, which replaces a 1995 7-color Speedmaster SM 102 with 220 million impressions, joins the company's existing pressroom lineup, including a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 102 color press and a Speedmaster SM 102 8-color perfector with coater installed in February 2008, on which the company has accumulated more than 42 million impressions in the first 21 months of operation. The company also has a 1995 2-color SM 102 perfecting press on which the company does a lot of black/black printing.
 
"Board work is our biggest challenge," Kosinesksi said. "We used to run 10,000 sheets per hour on the older press with the 24-pt. board we use for POP and display signage," said Brian Kosineski, "Now we run the same jobs at 13,000-15,000 sheets per hour, we're up to color within 100 sheets for a typical four-color job, and our makereadies are down by at least 10 percent across the board."
 
Elsewhere in the shop, Benchemark operates a pair of Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST 270 6-pocket saddlestitchers, two 54" POLAR guillotine cutters, and  Heidelberg Printmaster QM-DI press for small-format work. Run lengths fall anywhere from 500 to 500,000, with most jobs averaging around 25,000 pieces.
 
Ninety-five percent of Benchemark's clientele are located in New York State and the Northeast generally; customers include corporations, agencies, design firms, local schools and healthcare concerns. Since 1990, the company has operated American Hospital Publishing Group, Int'l, which designs and distributes patient information guides to 250 hospitals nationwide, with printing services provided by Benchemark. The company will celebrate a quarter-century in business in June 2010.
 
The company runs its fleet of Heidelberg presses hard, allowing 2-3 hours every Monday for routine maintenance to make sure the machines continue to perform as expected. "You know a Heidelberg press is going to last and last," Kosineski said, citing his company's longtime reliance on the brand. In the event a problem arises, he adds, Heidelberg's comprehensive Systemservice 36plus kicks in to resolve it. In short, said Kosineski, "Heidelberg service, support and parts availability could not be better."