To hold their own on a competitive market, industrial print shops are having to meet an ever longer list of requirements from customers, including fast delivery times, shorter run lengths, high quality, and exquisitely finished end products. Customers who use the Speedmaster XL 105 with perfecting device to keep their pressrooms up-to-date clearly have the edge in this regard. This Peak Performance Class press, which Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) unveiled with perfecting device at drupa 2008, is becoming a benchmark in the 70 x 100 centimeter (27.56 x 39.37 inch) format thanks to its range of automation components. The modular platform plays a key role in this. For example, one of the options available is the Prinect Inpress Control spectrophotometric inline measuring system. This module automatically measures and controls color and register in the press and forwards any necessary corrections directly to the Prinect Press Center control station. Process colors, spot colors and register in the quality control strip are factored into the calculation.

British magazine printers already using second long perfector with CutStar sheeter

British printing group Stephens & George, near Cardiff, recently began production with its second long perfector, a Speedmaster XL 105 ten-color press with Prinect Inpress Control and CutStar. The pressroom already houses a Speedmaster XL 105 eight-color press, also with CutStar. Stephens & George uses the two presses primarily to print magazines, thus providing backup for its Speedmaster SM 102-12 P. "Both presses are fitted with Prinect Inpress Control and we are very impressed with the speed of makeready and the way it gets to top quality quickly and retains it throughout the run," says Group Managing Director Andrew Jones. "The XL 105 really does run continuously at a speed of 15,000 sheets per hour and with CutStar provides a really industrialized solution," adds Jones.

The Company says the Speedmaster XL 105 is achieving at least 30 percent better productivity than the Speemdater SM 102 series presses and, at the end of last year, the eight-color Speedmaster XL 105 topped the five million impressions a month mark.

"The problem remains that the industry is still cutting prices so we are running faster to stand still. You have to have the right technology to remain in the game. Our turnover last year was £20 million and we have budgeted for a slight increase in the current financial year," says Jones.