The notebooks, calendars, and stationery sets from Brunnen are a familiar sight to schoolchildren, office workers, and householders around the world. The brand’s product range comprises a total of more than 7,000 items, which are produced mostly at the Heilbronn site of Baier & Schneider GmbH & Co.KG in Germany. Founded in 1877, the Schneider Group currently has more than 900 employees and processes more than 18,000 metric tons of paper each year. It is represented in eight European countries and exports to 60 countries.  

“We are successful because we monitor the market constantly and know what our customers want,” explains Ralf Wagner, head of production at the Heilbronn plant. “Product requirements change and we are seeing a growing demand for short runs and widely varied coatings and special effects.” That is why the company is soon to install a Speedmaster SX 52 four-color perfecting press with coating unit. The press is equipped with Anicolor zoneless inking unit technology, which keeps setup times extremely short, produces up to 90 percent less paper waste, and ensures high productivity. Moreover, the press includes the 40,000^th 35 x 50 cm printing unit manufactured in the Speedmaster SM 52/SX 52 range. “We want to use the press primarily to produce covers for school books, cover sheets for college blocks, and calendars. We’ll be doing that in short runs and, most importantly, with special surface finishing techniques such as drip-off effects,” says Wagner.  

A Speedmaster SM 52-4-P, a Speedmaster SM 52-2-P, and five Speedmaster SM 102 machines as two-, four- and five-color presses are currently in operation at various sites operated by the Brunnen Group. 

Customer benefits – everything from a single source

The company produces very short runs and runs with multiple versions, which comprise just 100 sheets for instance, on a Linoprint Pro C651 digital press, newly joined by a new Linoprint CV. Another recent addition to the machine park is a Suprasetter 106 CTP unit in prepress, while the eight cutters from Polar and a Stahlfolder Ti 52 also make for an impressive sight in postpress. Everything is networked by the Prinect print shop workflow. “We have worked in partnership with Heidelberg for a long time and we really value the company’s wide-ranging consulting services and its ability to respond to our needs with cutting-edge machines,” says Wagner. “That includes consumables that are tailored precisely to the presses, such as the Saphira range of inks for the Anicolor machine, and the service portfolio. All in all, thanks to these offerings, our production systems are cost-effective and reliable and enable us to stand out from our competitors in the market.”

Valued around the world – Speedmaster SM/SX 52 with comprehensive automation for outstanding flexibility

The Speedmaster SM 52 was launched onto the market at drupa 1995. It has been followed by a continuous stream of innovations that have made it a tried-and-tested solution, primarily in small and midsize commercial print shops, with more than 40,000 printing units having now been installed around the world. 

Since drupa 2012, the Speedmaster SX 52 has been delivering outstanding flexibility for the most widely varied customer requirements. The machine configuration can be customized to meet the needs of the print shop. The spectrum ranges from two to ten printing units, with or without a perfecting device. Various coating systems (including systems with UV and LE UV technology), Anicolor zoneless inking unit technology, and an inline die-cutting unit are just a few of the possible configuration options.

Milestones in the product’s development include the high-pile delivery, a powder spray device and inking unit temperature control in 1996. A configuration option for UV printing was introduced in 1998 and a fully automatic perfecting device was added in 1999. In 2000, a coating system with an extended high-pile delivery was introduced for the Speedmaster SM 52. At drupa 2004, the Speedmaster SM 52 became the first press of its format class to have eight printing units. It has also been available with Anicolor short-inking unit technology since Ipex 2006. Development continued with the Speedmaster SX 52, which was launched at drupa 2012 and delivers impressive new machine controls and supports an extended range of substrates.