The stand will occupy 7,800sqm of halls one and two at the exhibition and, from 1 May, the 150-strong Heidelberg team, led by technical manager Franz Haaf, will move in to start work.

Some 70km of cabling and hundreds of metres of pipes for humidity control, compressed air and coolants, will be laid before the 17 presses and 34 ancillary machines are fitted.

The company said that an installation of this magnitude would normally require six months.

Furthermore, there is no room for error. The Interpack packaging exhibition is running on the same site until the end of April, with Drupa beginning on 29 May.

"We are facing a particular challenge this year – creating a giant print shop in a record time of just 28 days," Haaf said.

The first delivery will be the flagship Speedmaster XL 162-6-L, but by the time the stand is complete with pre- and post-press equipment, visitors will be able to see a fully working commercial print or packaging set-up in action, producing a range of 80 products on FSC-certified paper.

The 14th Drupa exhibition takes place from 29 May to 11 June 2008 in Düsseldorf, Germany.