KENNESAW, Ga., March 7, 2006 - Kirkwood Printing, a high-end commercial sheetfed printer located in Wilmington, Mass., recently installed an 8-color Speedmaster XL 105 press with in-line aqueous coater from Heidelberg to increase capacity and fulfill growing customer demand. The shop is the second worldwide to install an 8-color model of Heidelberg's new peak performance press. "We wanted to buy the Rolls Royce of printing presses and in an intensive search, we kept coming back to the XL 105," said Eddie Kelley, co-owner and chief operating officer, Kirkwood Printing. "We specialize in high-end commercial work and the press fit our specific requirements. We needed a press that could turn out high-quality 8-color jobs at efficient speeds so we were particularly attracted to the XL 105's automated features and customer benefits." The Speedmaster XL 105 enables high-end commercial offset printing applications at speeds up to 18,000 sheets per hour for maximum throughput and significant productivity gains. As the first press in a new peak performance class, the XL 105 sets the industry standard for productivity, quality and cost-effectiveness. Tightly integrated into Heidelberg's Prinect workflow and equipped with fully automatic pre-setting as well as comprehensive memory functions of the Prinect CP 2000 Center press control system, the XL 105 enables clearly reduced make-ready for new and repeat jobs. The highly-automated press features "Autoplate Advanced" for simple, register-accurate plate changing, the new PresetPlus feeder and delivery generation and the contact-free Air-Transfer aerodynamic sheet transport system. The capabilities of the XL 105's new "Hycolor" integrated inking/dampening system include the ability to switch between standard and short inking units for effective printing of jobs with solids, thick ink coatings or low ink consumption. Additionally, the Hycolor unit features remotely adjustable lateral distribution of inking form rollers and remote controlled oscillator phasing to drastically reduce physical limitations such as ghosting. The XL 105 delivers the finest print quality available, even at maximum speeds. "The Speedmaster XL 105 is the ideal production press for highly industrialized commercial printing operations like Kirkwood Printing and for the long-run label and packaging sector," said Roland Krapp, vice president of sheetfed and Prinect product management for Heidelberg USA. "This press is designed to print at the fastest speeds possible without compromising quality, allowing printers to successfully meet the increasing demands of their customers." With a staff of 92 full-time employees, Kirkwood Printing produces high-end commercial work for a regional client base that includes customers in the financial services, education, medical products, consumer goods, travel and non-profit sectors. The XL 105 joins three existing 40-inch Heidelberg presses on Kirkwood's pressroom floor. The shop plans to use the new press to produce annual reports, corporate literature, direct marketing pieces, museum posters, catalog work and maps, among other large projects. Since October 2004, Kirkwood has enjoyed significant sales growth and market success. The company brought in $17.2 million in annual revenue in 2005, and was identified as the fastest growing printer in New England by the Boston Business Journal with 43 percent growth. With the new XL 105 in place, Kelley and his co-owners, Bob Coppinger and Will Winship, expect the shop to continue its growth trend. "We are hoping to achieve double-digit growth in the next few years and the XL 105 will play a major role in meeting that goal," said Kelley. "With the new press in place, we anticipate producing more high-quality impressions in a shorter amount of time, which is crucial to keeping up with current customer demands and attracting new business."