The world’s biggest offset press manufacturer Heidelberg launched a new B1 press, with packaging a key application, and showed a new version of its flagship press specifically designed for in-mould and wet-glue label printing, and launched a new rotary die cutting unit, at a major global online event this week.
It’s Showtime was presented around the world, with Australia and New Zealand first to view, and was run in conjunction with the in-person trade show China Print that is currently taking place, where Heidelberg is showing all its latest products.
The company used the event – which ran with a young, diverse group of presenters and managers, reflecting the company’s new outlook – to launch its new B1 press, the Speedmaster CX104, which is targeted at high volume packaging printers, commercial printers, and special applications printers.
“Heidelberg is investing in the industry’s future. With the new, intelligent Speedmaster CX 104, we are making our customers and Heidelberg itself far more competitive,” said CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer. “We have developed the press for a broad cross-section of customers and a wide range of applications to target the vast market potential. With our new universal press in the 70 x 100 format, Heidelberg is making state-of-the-art sheetfed offset technology available to a large number of print shops worldwide.”
The new press is based on the CX platform, for which Heidelberg says it has manufactured 50,000 units, but comes with a number of significant enhancements, including intelligent assistance, a new coating unit, and innovations in inking and dampening, all of which says Heidelberg, will take productivity to new levels.
The control system is new, and based on smartphone concept, and runs on IntelliStart 3. Heidelberg says all aspects of operation have been improved to make the press easier for the operator. Intelligent assistance includes wash assistance, powder assistance and colour assistance pro, which essentially automate the tasks.
Heidelberg described the coating unit as “a quantum leap”, saying a makready time saving of up to 75 per cent based on one-person operation has already been confirmed under real-life conditions by pilot customers. It says the new coating blanket cylinder will make changing coating forms easier and up to 25 percent faster.
A combination clamping system for coating blankets and coating plates maximises the number of possible applications. The pairing of a new, compact bearing unit and a new chambered blade concept ensures homogeneous application of coatings, even at the highest speeds, according to Heidelberg.
At the event Heidelberg made of much of what it described as an “outstanding” price-performance ratio of the new Speedmaster CX104. The system has free scalability, which extends all the way through to Push to Stop functionality. Specifications go up to 15 printing and coating units. Heidelberg says it already has two orders from packaging printers for the 15 unit version, which is 30 metres long.
Heidelberg also showed its new 106XL 8+C YYY eight-colour plus coater plus three drying units press, designed specifically for the thin films for in-mould and wet glue label printing.
Running at 14,000sph the new press has used aerodynamic technologies to enable to achieve consistent stability and quality on thin films at high speeds.
Heidelberg says in-mould labels are an attractive markets for print because they show stable growth in a stable market, have been unaffected by Covid, and are used on an increasing amount of products, from cheeses to ice cream to paints to oils.
The event also saw Heidelberg launch the new XL106D single drive rotary die cut unit. Heidelberg launched the world’s first rotary die cutter at drupa 2008, which was a double drive solution. The company says the new single drive version is smaller, costs less, and uses less power.
It's Showtime also had developments in cutting from Polar, in folding with an new Perfect Grip roller, and in die cutting from MK Master Matrix.
