This year, Print China 2015 once again lived up to its reputation as Asia’s largest trade show for the printing industry. Over 190,000 visitors took the opportunity to find out about current and future print media industry topics in Dongguan in Guangdong Province from April 7 to 12, 2015. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has been represented in China for many years and knows customer needs for integrated and efficient solutions, enhanced service, and new applications like no other supplier. The products, geared precisely to these trends, ¬thus generated high levels of interest among the Asian visitors. A particular highlight was the integration of digital and offset applications. The new Linoprint CV digital printing systems and the Jetmaster Dimension 250 for 4D printing were presented in China for the first time. The premiere of the four-color Speedmaster CS 92 proved a popular response to the rising demand for cost efficiency and the main print formats used in Asia. This machine has been specially developed for Asia and cuts printing plate costs by over 20 percent thanks to its new sheet format. Both the digital and offset presses were integrated via the Prinect print shop workflow.

“Asia is one of the key markets for us and we were able to showcase our integrated digital and offset printing applications to a large number of visitors. We’re delighted with how the trade show went and the interest in the solutions exhibited was high, as we had expected,” says Harald Weimer, member of the Management Board responsible for sales and services at Heidelberg. With 4D printing, Heidelberg highlighted possibilities that transcend the two-dimensional printing of flat materials that has characterized the last few centuries. This opens up totally new prospects for print shops to fulfill the growing demand for personalized consumer goods and proved to be a big draw for visitors. The new Speedmaster CS 92 also met market needs, with sales of almost twenty presses. 

The services and consumables sector was a key feature of the Heidelberg booth alongside equipment. There were large numbers of visitors inquiring about solutions to increase machine availability and about support for complex printing applications, with the result that numerous contracts were concluded. So it comes as no surprise that every second press is already supplied with Remote Service to ensure the fastest possible service. And this figure is continuing to grow, with all presses from the Qingpu site near Shanghai being shipped with a service contract.