“Prepress and press have already been highly automated for a long time and they work with digitized processes. At drupa 2016, we saw the new Stahlfolder TH/KH 82-P folding machine generation and knew straight away that postpress has now also developed significantly in terms of technology,” explains Kirk Galloway, Managing Director of Buxton Press in Derbyshire, England. The extensive tests subsequently carried out in Germany confirmed this impression and resulted in the purchase of two Stahlfolder TH 82-P machines from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). The first buckle plate folding machine has been in operation since January, the second will be delivered in March and a third machine is already being considered. The Stahlfolder TH/KH 82-P generation works on the shingled folding principle. This means that more sheets can be processed on the same line, resulting in a performance increase of up to 50 percent without raising the machine speed. High folding quality is thus guaranteed, even with delicate papers.

The two new Stahlfolder TH 82-P machines at Buxton Press replace four older folding machines and will also provide twenty percent more folding capacity. “We print more than 60 million publications per year and supply our customers with top quality, value for money products, produced on schedule. Our extensive range of folding machines is designed to facilitate an extremely wide variety of types of signatures, which is why flexibility, programmability and user-friendliness are key factors for us – criteria that the new Stahlfolder TH 82-P machines optimally meet,” says Galloway, explaining the reasons for the investment. Above all, the new folding machines fit perfectly into the high output process of the four Speedmaster XL 106 eight and ten-color machines with perfecting device and CutStar. With its 124 employees, Buxton Press is one of the leading printers of catalogs and magazines in England, and it produces, for example, 650 periodic publications for more than 400 publishers. Customers rate the print shop, which works with state-of-the-art technology, very highly – Buxton Press has been named “Printing Company of the Year” by the English magazine PrintWeek, latterly for three years in a row.

Druckhaus Waiblingen improves corporate value creation thanks to a new Stahlfolder KH 82-P

Druckhaus Waiblingen Remstal-Bote GmbH has chosen a combination folding machine once again – one reason for this is the smaller footprint in comparison with a comparable buckle plate folding machine. The company was impressed by the new Stahlfolder KH 82-P folding machine generation’s innovative concept. Since the autumn of last year, a KH 82-P combination folding machine has been used in production at Druckhaus Waiblingen. “We’re very happy with the performance and quality of our four Stahlfolder combination folding machines. The new machine has enabled us to increase our capacity even more and helps us to meet our target to increase our company’s value creation,” confirmed Joachim Battermann, Production Manager, Sheetfed Printing. The fully-automatic Stahlfolder KH 82-P processes the sheets in shingles in both the parallel and the cross-fold unit. “The KH 82-P sets the bar much higher in comparison with our existing combination folding machines. From the very outset, we were able to completely integrate the folding machine into the production process and meet the increased demand more effectively,” says Battermann. Druckhaus Waiblingen is planning the next major investment for the summer – then, a four-color Speedmaster XL 106 and a five-color XL 106, each with a coating unit, will be installed in the press room. “With Heidelberg, we have found the partner who has presented us with exactly the right solutions for our needs – the high level of productivity of the presses can be used in postpress without any problems and we can supply our customers even more quickly, with top quality products,” explains Battermann. Druckhaus Waiblingen produces high-quality, premium sheetfed printed products, such as company reports, catalogs and magazines. In the field of newspaper rotary printing, the company produces five daily papers, weekly newspapers, supplements and newspaper-type magazines. The printing company, founded in 1839, is still family-run and now has more than 100 employees.

The needs of industrial print shop customers met to the full by the new Stahlfolder TH/KH 82-P drupa generation

The new Stahlfolder TH/KH 82-P generation is based on the proven Stahlfolder TH/KH 82 platform. Customers and users are familiar with the basic technology, and imposition layouts do not have to be changed in order to benefit from the improvement in performance. By transferring the technology from the Stahlfolder TX 96, the shingled folding principle was integrated into the existing platform. The “P” stands for the plus points of performance, quality and reliability.  Industrialized commercial printers with peak performance machines from the Speedmaster XL series in 70 x 100 cm format, or book binders with an annual production of more than 30 million sheets rate the Stahlfolder TH/KH 82-P highly. Standardized signatures, such as 16 pages of A4 or 32 pages of A5, can be produced in top quality – even with difficult substrates. More than 50 machines have already been sold throughout the world; numerous print shops have invested in two Stahlfolder TH/KH 82-P machines and some have even purchased three or four Stahlfolder TH/KH 82-P machines.