Allied Media’s team with Speedmaster CX 104

Kennesaw, Ga. – Allied Media, a small, family-owned company located in Fenton, Michigan, recently installed a new Speedmaster CX 104 from HEIDELBERG. The CX 104 is the first new press for Allied, who has historically invested in used presses. In just a few months, the press has significantly improved the company’s production metrics and increased throughput three-fold.

Dramatic Production Improvements

Allied, known for its fast, dependable addressing and mailing department, services a nationwide customer base – ranging from political and union organizations to large automakers and small local businesses. “Our excellence in the printing industry has been hard earned and well maintained for almost thirty years,” said Randy Rockman, President of Allied. “Our turnaround time and delivery to USPS is unmatched as is our dedication to our customers.”

After outgrowing its current capacity, Rockman said, “We needed our presses to be more productive to meet new print, address and mail deadlines.” The company, frustrated with the headaches of purchasing from used press dealers, decided that to meet its productivity goals, it needed the reliability and modern technology of a new press along with its warranty and service to support any unexpected issues in the future. Allied’s decision to purchase from HEIDELBERG was largely influenced by its overwhelming experience with its Stahlfolder KH 82, which the company described as the “best purchase we’ve ever made,” along with other recent investments in a Suprasetter CtP and three Versafire digital presses.

Allied’s four-color Speedmaster CX 104, with speeds of up to 15,000 sheets per hour, is equipped with HEIDELBERG’s latest innovations including autonomous Push-to-Stop technology, AutoPlate Pro, the HEIDELBERG User Experience, and AI-powered assistants. Its user-friendly, intuitive operation boosts performance, minimizes makeready times, and lowers waste and energy consumption. Additionally, the press’s completely redesigned coating unit allows for quick changeovers between different types of jobs – ideal for the dynamic work of commercial printers. Since installation in March of this year, Allied has seen dramatic improvements across all production metrics – output speed, efficiency, turnaround times – and has tripled its throughput. The company’s overall efficiency improvements have also resulted in decreased production costs.

Aside from the press’s standard technology, Allied also opts to use Saphira Consumables on press and added UV curing and Prinect Inpress Control 3 color control technology to further enhance its productivity. The industry-leading inline spectrophotometer automatically measures and controls color and registers on press at 15,000 sheets per hour. According to John Evans, Allied’s Chief Accounting Officer, “It has cut our production costs and made our pressmen much more accurate with registration and efficient with their time.” Not only does Prinect Inpress Control produce more consistent color but the technology has helped cut makeready times in half.

Allied also chooses Prinect to connect each part of its production – from Suprasetter to Speedmaster to Stahlfolder. Evans said, “Production Manager is the glue that brings everything together and is also great for press reporting.”

Even though this is Allied’s first press equipped with Push-to-Stop and other advanced Speedmaster technology, Rockman said his operators adjusted to it quickly. After training on-site in Fenton and with HEIDELBERG at the Print Media Performance and Training Center in Kennesaw, his team “was quick to learn. They love the dependability of having a new press.” He added, “HEIDELBERG is such a trusted name, and we feel it is the best in the industry.”