July 9, 2004 -- Heidelberg recently installed a four-color Speedmaster SM 52 press with the 20,000th printing unit at Austrian printshop 1. Aichfelder Druck GmbH, 1a druck for short. A Speedmaster CD 74 fully fitted for UV production and a Speedmaster CD 102 were also installed. This investment saw the printshop kick off 2004 with a completely new machine park. “We now offer our customers an extended range of services – from small and mid-format right through to large format,” explains Managing Director Bernd Payer. The Heidelberg package’s benefits included a high degree of automation, a standardized user interface and the possibility of networking the entire production process. A crucial benefit is that printers can be flexibly deployed an all three presses. 1a druck was founded in November 1996 in the course of a management buy out process, and is wholly owned by 16 of the now 32 staff members. Using the new machine park, the quality-minded printshop produces a wide variety of paper, board and plastic printed products, serving industrial customers and advertising agencies. Continuous developments The criteria print shops need to meet in the A3 market are growing all the time. These include shorter runs, higher quality, shorter delivery times, greater cost awareness and increasingly sophisticated customer needs. “The Speedmaster SM 52 helps us to overcome these challenges,” confirms Bernd Payer. A fact made possible by its many special features, which make this press highly flexible and versatile. Industrial commercial printshops find that the Speedmaster SM 52 supplements the large-format area, enabling them to produce short runs profitably. Small and midsize commercial printshops regard the Speedmaster SM 52 as a standard press capable of printing the entire product range. The Speedmaster SM 52 was launched into the market at drupa 1995. Since 1996 Heidelberg delivers the press with a high-pile deliveryand an inking unit temperature control. Since 1998 it can be equipped for UV printing. Further innovations have continually been added, such as the fully automated sheet reversing device in 1999. In 2000 the Speedmaster SM 52 gained a coating system with an extended high-pile delivery, while 2002 saw the premiere of the inline die cutting unit. This unit is located after the last printing unit and means that printing, punching, perforating and scoring can be performed in a single pass. Since drupa 2004, the Speedmaster SM 52 is the first press of its format class to be available with eight printing units.