Evoking a resonant theme from its highly successful 2012 drupa presence, Heidelberg, the world's largest supplier of print media solutions and services to the graphic communications industry, will focus on "HEI Flexibility" in Booth 1214 at Graph Expo 2012. 
  
In Heidelberg's lexicon, "HEI Flexibility" refers to an intelligent combination of offset, digital, and web-to-print offerings, designed to produce top-quality print products in the most profitable way possible, regardless of run length or variable content. In its entirety, Heidelberg's booth presentation will represent the ultimate in hybrid, color-managed production: offset and digital united and facilitated by Heidelberg's Prinect workflow for maximum productivity and cost efficiency. 
  
"Shorter run lengths and customer demand for high-quality, flexible solutions are inescapable facts of life for today's working printers," said Heidelberg USA President Harald Weimer. "Printers who plan to succeed in this challenging environment need access to functions such as job planning and costing, standardized color control and end-to-end management and production control. At Heidelberg, we believe that optimized production comes not just from acquiring the right solutions, but from making them work together. The best equipment-offset and digital-supported by integrated technologies and hybrid workflows, give printers the tools they need to grow and thrive. Visitors to our Graph Expo booth will experience a seamless example of automated print manufacturing at its most flexible and efficient." 
  
The Big Picture
Heidelberg chose the HEI Flexibility theme to represent every demo piece it will produce at the show. This year, Heidelberg has created a simulated retail promotion that tells a marketing story that is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Produced entirely on Heidelberg equipment running in the booth, the promotion will be notable not only for the quality and precision of the work-a Heidelberg given-but also for the way the pieces fit together in an integrated campaign such as only Heidelberg can engineer. As the only print technology vendor that can take a file from web-to-print input and move it seamlessly through all subsequent stages of production, gathering and updating cost data at every stage, Heidelberg will encourage printers to look beyond individual machine specifications to grasp the bigger picture and bottom-line benefits of end-to-end production integration. Visitors to the booth will see these benefits, not only to the printer, but to their clients as well. 
  
The Hybrid Path 
Alongside its iconic Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor press, Heidelberg will present both short-run, cut-sheet and wide-format digital production equipment, including both the Linoprint ProTMC901, and the EFI Rastek H652 UV flatbed inkjet printer. The Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor, Rastek H652, the Linoprint C901 will be linked in a live, color-managed workflow as they print a variety of materials for the simulated promotion, showcasing Heidelberg's unmatched cross-platform expertise in integrated production and simultaneous color-matching (via Prinect Color Toolbox) of lithographic, electrophotographic, and digital inkjet output. Visitors will learn how getting highly coordinated and superior results from all three processes can be a major competitive advantage for printers who know how to make cross-platform color management part of their everyday production routines. 
  
Heidelberg's unifying Prinect workflow includes integration with inline and offline finishing equipment. These flexible, automated solutions-perfectly adapted for handling digital output-will include the U.S. debut of a new small-format POLAR 56 NET version with P-NET, Compucut, Bar Code Reader and Process Visualization, and a Stahlfolder TH 56. 
  
Anicolor: Short-Run Champ  
A can't-miss highlight of Heidelberg's Graph Expo presence will be the "Anicolor 30-Minute Makeready Challenge," running twice each day for 30 minutes. During this time, Heidelberg operators will complete between six and eight separate jobs. 
  
The Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor, presented at Graph Expo in a 5-color configuration with aqueous coater, features a zoneless short-inking unit that makes the press cost-competitive with digital devices in quantities as small as 200 impressions. Operating with near-zero makeready waste-10-15 sheets is typical-this groundbreaking machine can be ready to print to contract color almost as soon as the plates are in place. 
  
Graph Expo 2012 also will mark the U.S. launch of the Heidelberg-branded Linoprint ProTM C901 Graphic Arts Edition high-speed color digital press, shown with an inline bookletmaker and cover interposer. Running at up to 90 ppm, this high-output press is the offset printer's answer to short runs, variable data printing, and fast turnaround on a wide range of substrates. For the first time, the company also will exhibit the Rastek H652 wide-format, flat-bed UV inkjet printer. 
  
Prinect workflow technology will drive color management and all other integrated functions, making it possible for these high-volume, toner-based, wide-format and cut-sheet devices to join the Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor offset press in a color-managed workflow that makes the best use of both processes. 
  
The Linoprint C901 will be presented with Heidelberg's newly enhanced Prinect Digital Print Manager, which enables printers to manage and calculate their offset and digital print jobs from a single workflow. Jobs can then be routed quickly to the most cost-efficient production equipment. 
  
Heidelberg also will demonstrate the newest generation of Prinect Image Control, an advanced spectrophotometric color management system. The latest iteration of Prinect Image Control is specifically designed for printers who wish to comply with G7 methods and ISO standards for printing according to Grey Balance Control. Heidelberg experts also will highlight the benefits of Heidelberg's cloud-based Prinect Performance Benchmarking service, recently honored with a 2012 InterTech Technology Award from Printing Industries of America. 
  
Prinect: HEI Flexibility Hub  
Modular in design, Heidelberg's comprehensive Prinect workflow is powerful, configurable, and flexible enough to address customer-specific tasks and needs. For example, the Prinect components Web-to-Print Manager, Business Manager MIS, and Prepress Manager put e-commerce-critical for customer retention and support-within the capability of nearly every print shop. 
  
In effect, Prinect brings "HEI Flexibility" to every phase of print manufacturing by routing jobs quickly and efficiently to production equipment for optimized throughput and higher profitability. Heidelberg not only believes, but also can demonstrate, that printers who implement these solutions will benefit from the interlinking of offset and digital printing to boost their competitiveness. 
  
Borrowing some visual clues from its drupa presence, Heidelberg's Graph Expo exhibit will feature a hard-to-miss display of printing plates lining the walls as well as an oversized presentation center at the heart of the booth. 
  
We'll see you there! 
  
Press Conference/Special Events  
Heidelberg will hold its 2012 Graph Expo Press Conference on Sunday, Oct. 7 from 11:00 AM to noon in Room 194b, located in the West Building, Level 1 at McCormick Place. 
  
On Monday, Oct. 8, also in Booth 1214, Heidelberg will sponsor a gathering from 5-6 p.m. celebrating Women in Print. Look for details in the coming weeks.