The guillotine will arrive at the end of this month and the Speedmaster, launched as part of the SX range at Drupa, will replace a Printmaster PM 52 in July. Both machines were bought from Heidelberg in a £350,000 deal.
The Cotswolds-based company reported a 40% rise in turnover to £2m in the past two years (following an investment in a Speedmaster SM 52 4-colour) and said it expects the new installs to further increase profit.
Vale Press commercial director Tom Stowe said: "We keep all our work inhouse and so we have had to turn away jobs from existing and potential clients as we do not have the capacity. These machines will increase our productivity and help us keep up with demand."
Quick make-ready times are important for the printer, which has clients from the trade sector, arts and commercial companies, so the Speedmaster SX 52’s Intellistart system was a particular attraction.
The automated workflow programmes job aspects such as ink characteristics and paper thickness and size directly into a computer to prepare the press for jobs with minimal input from staff.
Stowe said: "We are specialist B3 printers, so our main workload is short-run jobs with under 2,000 sheets. We need to have quicker turnaround times so we can get more jobs done in a shift."
The Speedmaster’s eco-friendly cleaning system further reduces make ready times as well as adding to Vale Press environmentally-neutral commitment. Cleaning fluids use less chemicals than that for the Printmaster, meaning that ink changing emits less toxins and wastes fewer paper sheets.
Stowe said: "We are environmentally minded and with ISO14001 we are committed to on-going improvements. This press will help us further reduce our start up paper waste, which also has cost implications."
Vale Press is based in the Vale of Evesham, Cotswolds, and has 18 employees. The company has run a T Offset, Printmaster PM 52, and Speedmaster SM 52 from Heidelberg since it was founded in 1984.
