One printer that is perhaps uniquely placed to assess the relative merits of different sheetfed offerings is Surrey-based Alderson Print Group. The company has an astonishing range of press makes and formats under one (very big) roof that shelters everything from a single-colour B4 Heidelberg TOK, to B3, B2, and B1 presses from Mitsubishi and Heidelberg including a 12-colour long perfector. This firepower is being augmented by the largest sheet size possible: a mammoth KBA Rapida 205, which has just been installed along with a Rapida 162A. Oh, and it has digital and web offset facilities too. The firm’s criteria when selecting a press can be summed up as, Will it win us new business? Will it make us more efficient?
It’s all about analysing what the benefits will be, explains Neil Alderson. If we put automatic plate changing on, how much time will it save, and is it going to be worth the investment? Is perfecting or coating going to give us any added value? Is it going to make us slicker? Some things save you money, such as autoplate or closed-loop colour which are nice. Other things, such as programmable air or foiling might only be used once or twice so aren’t worth it. Flexibility is absolutely key for us.
Explaining the most recent press investments, Alderson notes: We chose the Anicolor because we were losing out on small-format leaflet work. It’s perfect to bridge the gap between digital and litho as we can get a job ready in less than three minutes. The firm hopes the new KBAs will win it the point-of-sale and packaging work that it had previously lost out on. However, the installation of these two giant presses is a different order of magnitude altogether, as Alderson readily admits. There’s a hell of a lot of difference between B1 and the 205.
We need a new platesetter, guillotine, and paper handling kit – everything needs to be four times as big. The 205 has UV, too, so we’re going into a whole new zone with that. We’re looking forward to it.
It’s hard to think of a greater contrast between Alderson’s potpourri of a press hall and the set-up at Nottingham-based Central Colour, which is unusual in that its operation revolves around a sole B1 multi-colour press. We don’t generally buy presses to get us into new markets or into different types of work. We want to produce high-end quality in the most efficient way possible, says director Andy Baxter. A six-colour with coater covers almost every conceivable option that we require. We don’t want to get into perfecting, for example, because it’s not the way we’re set up. We have a nice neat organisation where everything flows through the factory really well.
The firm is a dedicated Mitsubishi house with an upgrade plan that involves putting in the latest model every couple of years, and last year it ordered Europe’s first Diamond V3000. Our whole set-up is geared around one B1 press, so we can’t afford downtime, Baxter explains. Our last Mitsubishi did 90m impressions in two years and 11 months.
The specification for the firm’s latest Mitsubishi was the same as the previous one, but with the SimulChanger option that halves the plate-changing time. Makeready is crucial to us, Baxter adds. The more sets of plates we can get on the press, the more money we can make. Our work mix involves short running times and lots of makereadies and we’ve got to be so efficient. Maintenance is also reduced on the new model. It was two-and-a-half hours, now it’s just an hour on a Monday morning.
Baxter says the firm’s focus on simplicity and efficiency is paying off, too: We love our set-up. We don’t want a bigger factory or three presses. With one press we’re turning over £3.3m and we’re in profit, and we know people with four presses who are doing £2.8m.
A specialism of a different nature led Derbyshire-based Easibind International to a radical change of format with its latest press. The company is known for printing onto difficult polymer-based substrates, and within its set-up had already fingerprinted digital UV printing (with HP Indigo), waterless UV printing (a KBA Genius) and UV offset (with KBA Planeta and Manroland presses). As such, its decision to upgrade its litho facilities was always going to be an interesting one, says chief executive Harry Skidmore. The press had to be flexible in the substrates it could handle. In fact, that was critical. We run a range of materials from 60gsm FSC paper up to 1,000-micron high-tech polymers. Getting the right print quality on thicker substrates is a particular challenge, and we had to guarantee we could print 1,000 micron.
After working its way through a traditional list of suppliers, but with a very tight and specific brief, the company opted for a Roland R 505 LV in an unusual 590x740mm format. We didn’t want B2, or B1. Neither was quite right. Traditionally, we have been a B1 litho printer but we have moved to a turnkey solution with this hybrid size – you could call it B2-plus – and that was part of our specification. We need the extra bleed for wallets, folders and some of the packaging we produce, and this format is more efficient for our products.
Another big plus is the Roland’s automated maintenance system that monitors the press and flags up the maintenance tasks that need to be carried out, and the time that will be required. It’s a big machine with lots of flexibility. Quick set-up, and quick changeovers from hard polymers to soft papers, Skidmore adds. Rolling pressure was very important, in order to apply what we would call a ‘flexo quality’ white. We reckon this is probably the most flexible muscle machine there is. And we’re probably the only place with digital, waterless and litho under one roof. UV is also very good because you don’t have problems with inconsistent drying, and there’s no standing time, so we can print it, die-cut it and out it goes.
Sometimes, though, it can be a more frivolous feature that grabs the attention, as Central Colour’s Baxter reveals when he describes the effect of the LED light beams that grace the side of the firm’s new V3000: People walk into the factory and say ‘Wow! Look at this!’.
SHEETFED SELECTION: TOP TIPS FROM SUPPLIERS
It’s all about return on investment and customers should expect their supplier to provide expert guidance. If technical clarification is required our experts can explain the options – and any possible drawbacks – to the customer.
Gary Doman, sales director, Manroland
Analyse the type of work you handle, assess the total cost of ownership, and assess the reliability of the machine and back-up services. When buying a press, you are deciding the future of your company. Buying cheap can turn out to be an expensive venture.
Gernot Keller, B1 product manager, Heidelberg UK
The first thing is to get the size right. The ‘one-size-fits-all’ maxim does not apply to presses. Analyse the sector that you are trying to attract and buy the appropriate machine to service that market. Be realistic, not aspirational, as there is no money to be made printing short runs of leaflets on a B1 press in the hope that they will lead to long-run brochures.
Neil Sutton, managing director, Komori UK
Is it the latest generation? That is the key question printers should ask. Technological advances have altered the focus printers should have when buying a press. What this means in real terms is printers running double-day shifts or overtime can replace two presses with a single one and trim their man hours but maintain productivity. This way presses work harder and smarter for the business. Now is the time to invest in technology-loaded presses.
Mark Nixon, executive sales director for sheetfed, KBA UK
Printers are typically most interested in speed of makeready. There are a number of factors that contribute to the overall time it takes to move from one job to the next, but the key element of the job change is not just starting the next piece of work, it’s how quickly the printer starts producing saleable sheets.
Neil Handforth, sales director, Apex Digital Graphics
Define the client’s production needs, including existing and future marketplaces, assisted by a proven track record of the performance of the chosen press supplier’s products at existing clients. Honest client recommendation is always respected throughout the industry.
Phil Murphy, senior manager business development, Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses
