Since early this year, Expaprint, a print shop based in Montpellier, France, has been using a Speedmaster XL 75 four-color press with coating unit from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). Founded in 1999, the company is now one of the largest online print shops for discerning graphics and communications customers and had previously used only presses from another manufacturer for its production operations. The Exasud production site with its team of 25 employees specializes in high-grammage print products such as business cards, postcards, folders, and calendars. "The Speedmaster XL 75 meets our needs in every respect thanks to its high level of automation," explains Philippe Sabadel, technical director at Exasud. "We only process jobs with grammages of 300 to 350 gsm in mixed forms. This includes over two million business cards a day, which makes up 40 percent of our business." Perfect register accuracy and the highest quality are particularly important for mixed forms to enable precise cutting or lamination of jobs in postpress. 

"Since taking this new press into operation, we have been able to increase our productivity by 30 percent," explains Sabadel. The integrated Prinect Inpress Control measuring and control system, which controls color and register accuracy on the fly, cuts makeready times and reduces paper waste. "We now only need just under 130 waste sheets for each make-ready process, thereby saving over EUR 100,000 a year. We have succeeded in doubling the number of makeready processes for an average run of 1,000 sheets and we are currently achieving 25 job changes a day, with even more at peak periods."

All in all, the number of customer complaints has dropped considerably. "The Speedmaster XL 75 is very ergonomic and user-friendly. Our printers can rely on the press, thus enabling them to work at a constant maximum speed of 16,000 sheets per hour for short runs and 18,000 for longer runs," says a pleased Sabadel. 

The Speedmaster XL 75 runs alcohol free and Exasud uses blankets and coatings from the Saphira range. The company holds the Imprim'Vert eco-label and also has certifications to ISO 14001 and ISO 12647-2 based on the PSO standard. FSC certification has been applied for. 

The Exaprint parent company, based in Montpellier, and its 43-strong workforce generated sales of EUR 43 million in 2011. Each day, over 2,200 orders arrive exclusively from professional customers via the online shop. The company has a sales office in Barcelona and plans to open a branch in Turin soon.