"We've taken everything that is great about the CD 102, ink train, sheet travel etc, but in order to make it a new high-speed platform, we've added a lot of the XL technology as well as new sideframes to offer proven CD 102 quality, but at higher speeds," said Heidelberg UK B1 product manager Gernot Keller.

The non-perfecting press will be configurable with between four and eight units and handles the same plate and 720x1,020mm sheet size as the CD, but features a whole host of XL 105 technology. According to Heidelberg, more than 50% of the parts on the CX are either new or transferred from the XL 105.

For full details on the enhancements and technical specifications, click here for our Product of the Week article on the new press.

The press on show at Ipex will be a five-colour plus coater running with Inpress Control closed-loop colour management system, which, according to Jürgen Grimm, Heidelberg senior vice-president product management, will be the typical UK configuration.

The first machine has already been installed at Heidelberg's Wiesloch demo facility, a six-colour UV press with four Interdeck dryers, foil accessory pack and extended delivery. A CutStar inline sheeter is expected to be added in the near future.

According to Heidelberg, beta machines will shortly be installed at a number of sites, but the firm will be taking orders for the press at the Ipex next month and will be delivering presses in September in "small numbers". Deliveries will start "in volume" in early 2011.

Presently the firm has no plans to develop a Speedmaster SX using the same transfer of technology from the XL 105 to SM 102 platform, but Grimm said "if there's a market opportunity there, we surely will".