More than 700 printers from all over the world visited Inforum Special Effects. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) had sent out invitations to this international event held at its Wiesloch site in October 2002. Heidelberg's experts highlighted the new opportunities offered by high-end offset in the field of quality commercial and packaging printing in particular. In two halls, the company presented solutions featuring presses from the Speedmaster CD 74 series (now available in a new UV version and with dual coating units) and the Speedmaster CD 102 Duo, the world's first press with flexographic printing units fitted upstream of offset units for high-quality inline production and coating. This ensures that printers in this sector are well equipped to meet the changing needs of the market. E nd users today are becoming more demanding and expect the finished product delivered quickly, in shorter runs and at a competitive price. Service and flexibility are the key competitive criteria. "Printers must become more customer-focussed and offer more distinctive products," explains Dr. Klaus Spiegel, Director on Heidelberg's Management Board. "Efficiency in production is the key to our customers' success. A networked digital workflow made possible using software modules from the Prinect family is crucial to this end," adds Dr. Spiegel. The Inforum used printing samples of folding boxes, labels, high-quality commercial work, plastic films and plastic cards to showcase the many diverse opportunities available. With all these solutions, Heidelberg is committed to cutting costs and material consumption by integrating a whole raft of processes such as coating and special colors in the press. "The consumer should be tempted into buying and saying – I want to have that," explains Fridolin Leis, Head of the Packaging and Label Division at Heidelberg, and adds, "we provide printers with the perfect solution for producing high-quality print products that stand out on the shelves". New segments on the medium-format market The Inforum provided the venue for unveiling the Speedmaster CD 74 with inline dual coating. The CD 74-LYYL thus supports a combination of conventional offset and inline UV coating. When used with appropriate add-ons, this press option is also suitable for numerous special applications, for example dual dispersion coating applications such as gold or silver coating with additional protective coating, printing with pearly luster pigments or processing of scratchcard, blister-pack or scented coatings. The new Speedmaster CD 74 has been available with fully-integrated UV technology since April 2002. It is targeted at high-quality commercial printers and the packaging and label market. This complete solution for the medium-format sector gives printers the means to finish their products with truly stunning effects. It supports UV inks, UV coatings and inline dual coating. “With the Speedmaster CD 74, we’re giving our customers a solution that will enable them to produce cost-effectively and be competitive”, explains Dr. Klaus Spiegel, Member of the Management Board at Heidelberg and responsible for sheetfed offset. “The entire production process is highly automated, flexible and runs extremely efficiently.” As of October 2002, over 230 units have been installed worldwide. This is a success story that speaks for itself, since the Speedmaster CD 74 was only put into series production at the end of 2000. The CD 74 is the right choice for all-round printers, industrial printshops and specialists, since it enables them all to move into new market segments and develop existing ones further. At the end of August this year, the CD 74 received a special award in the form of the German Design Prize (Bundespreis für Design). The German Design Prize is German’s top design award and is bestowed by the German Design Council on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology. New dimension in inline production For more than ten years, Heidelberg has been building up its expertise in the construction of special presses. Working closely with customers, it has carefully developed presses that reflect their needs. One of the latest developments is the Speedmaster CD 102 Duo. The Duo stands for flexography and offset inline and signifies that this is the first sheetfed press to combine two printing technologies. The CD 102 Duo features coating and drying units upstream of six offset printing units, plus a downstream dual coating unit with twin drying unit. This press is therefore ideal for products in the packaging, label and commercial printing sectors. The press is a total of 28 meters long and prints at a maximum speed of 13,000 sheets per hour. Heidelberg has developed this press for high-quality inline production, for example applying opaque white onto metallic foils, or high-quality gold or silver inks that can be overprinted inline with offset inks. This enables printers to achieve ultra-fine metallic effects which satisfy the needs of even the most discerning customers.