Ronald Huber, CEO of commercial print shop Müller Ditzen AG in Bremerhaven, was interested in offering his customers even higher quality and taking sustainable printing to a new level. He therefore opted for a five-color Speedmaster CX 102 press with coating unit from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). While the press was being manufactured at the Wiesloch-Walldorf site, Huber visited the Druckhaus Becker print shop in Ober-Ramstadt and was immediately impressed by the wide range of options offered by the new LE UV drying technology. Just under a year after commissioning the world's first Speedmaster XL 106 with LE UV dryer, Druckhaus Becker invested in another press with the same technology. 

LE stands for Low Energy and is an energy-efficient process for UV printing with highly reactive inks. It enables high-quality, surface-finished print products to be produced inline and faster than ever before. Without further ado, Huber changed its conventional press to an LE UV machine and has been working with the Speedmaster CX 102-5+L LE UV - the first of its kind in northern Germany - since October last year. "Our print processes combine sustainability with outstanding quality. We can now offer our customers a broad range of surface finishing options such as high-gloss, drip-off, and matt coatings and even a combination of matt/gloss effects in a single pass. The sheets are dry when they reach the delivery, which means we can process them straight away," explains Huber. "This opens up a whole new range of applications - and that applies to the substrates we can use, too. The LE UV offset press gives us even greater flexibility and ensures we can provide our customers with previously unimaginable results - taking in everything from commercial to PVC foil printing on absorbent and non-absorbent materials and even on uncoated paper." 

In just a few years, Müller Ditzen AG has grown from a very small company to one of the largest full-service print shops in the region, with 97 employees working in two- and three-shift operation. The print shop was created by the merger of Müller Druckerei GmbH, founded in 1984 by Michael Müller, and Ditzen GmbH und Co. KG, founded in 1895 as the publishing print shop of what was later to become the Nordsee-Zeitung newspaper. Müller Ditzen works with other publishing houses and media service providers in the Nordsee media group to offer discerning customers in the food and beverage industry, SMEs, and national and regional brand manufacturers the best possible services.

In mid-November last year, Müller Ditzen held an open day to show customers and other interested parties the wide range of surface finishing options offered by the new Speedmaster CX 102-5+L LE UV. The event included lectures on carbon-neutral printing. Visitors were particularly impressed with the results of printing on uncoated paper, which now delivers a higher contrast and exceptional brilliance. The fact that the ink dries immediately dispenses with the need for a protective coating, thus maintaining the special surface quality of uncoated papers. 

In opting for the Speedmaster CX 102-5+L LE UV, Müller Ditzen AG is strengthening its commitment to environmental protection. The press production process is carbon-neutral and the print shop offsets 220 metric tons of CO 2 through a climate protection project. The machine is equipped with Prinect Inpress Control, which controls color and register on the fly, thus cutting startup waste to a minimum. The inks used in the LE UV process have little odor. As jobs dry immediately, no powder is required in most cases. "We achieve energy savings of up to 60 percent during production," says Huber, pleased with the sustainable climate protection. The print shop has long used electricity generated from renewable sources. 

The pressroom already houses two further five-color Speedmaster CD 102 presses, both equipped with the Image Control color measuring system and one with an additional coating unit. "By making modifications in the prepress stage, we have succeeded in calibrating the color settings of all three machines so they deliver identical print results," says production manager Norbert Nowacki. "As sheets are dry on arrival in the delivery, the new LE UV press not only improves planning and speeds up processes, it also ensures a very high level of flexibility across all machines." 

http://www.muellerditzen.de 

Further information on LE UV printing and user reports is available at: 
http://www.heidelberg.com/www/html/en/content/overview1/products/overview_drystar_le_uv