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Press technology has really moved on. It's going to be a revelation for some of the companies that come to Ipex." This is the observation of one manufacturer, who's anticipating a few amazed faces among visitors to the show.
The reason is that, while the dateline is 2010, there are press halls up and down the country where the printing technology in use is very much wedded to the last century - entirely understandable when the recession has caused many companies to batten down the hatches and shelve plans for reinvestment.
Those that are now in a position to re-evaluate their technological options will find that sleek, slick, highly automated presses where it literally is possible to ‘push a button and it all happens' are now a reality, and these machines absolutely eat work. Some of them even play a tune or put on a light show while they're at it. PrintWeek spoke to users of the latest generation of ultra-fast makeready machines to find out what life in a high-tech press hall is really like.
The KBA user
Cambrian Printers had been an all-Heidelberg house until it opted for KBA's latest-generation Rapida 106 with DriveTronic SPC (simultaneous plate changing). The new 10-colour press at the Aberystwyth firm has been up and running for just over a year and operations director Doug Gray took a forensic approach before deciding to invest. "We did a lot of research, because it was a big step for the business to change press suppliers," he says.
"We tested all the potential presses in great detail and timed everything to the second. I've been on a soap box for years about the fact that it's not about how fast the press runs, it's about makereadies. In fact, we called the project ‘EasyJet' because of likening it to their model of planes spending as much time in the air as possible. So the project really was all about makeready times. "When we put the KBA through its paces it was arguably the most impressive press demonstration I have ever seen.
Having decided upon the Rapida, it replaced four older presses when it was installed, so it really was squeaky bum time when it went in. We bought it for short-run work - 3,500 to 4,000 is our average run length - and we have challenged digital printers with this because the press definitely pushes the boundaries backwards in terms of economic run lengths.
"The level of productivity means we have been known to gain 12 hours over a 48 hour period when we've worked the weekend. In that particular instance we were producing 17 titles all on the same paper and it went through phenomenally well. There is a knock-on effect to other parts of the business of putting in a highly automated press; we had to put another plate line in, for example, and if we are ganging up similar paper sizes on a shift then the plateroom know they are going to have a tough shift keeping up with it. Production planning is important, too, in order to get the best out of it, and it changed the whole logistics in the factory - everything is geared to keeping the presses running. For example, we have created a paper acclimatisation zone so the paper sits there for 48 hours before we print on to it, and we plan things so we have 24 hours of paper ready to go. We really push the press and makeready as fast as we can.
I say to the minders ‘everything's coming to you, you just have to concentrate on running the press', so we don't have minders wandering off for 20 minutes to look for paper. We are ready to go in four to five minutes on a fresh job and can be up and running, and in good colour, inside two minutes for a follow-on section because it retains all the air settings, feeder and delivery set-up if the job is in memory. Colour control is very sophisticated and actually a bit too clever. We worked with KBA to make it more straightforward and it's far quicker now."
In a nutshell "The simultaneous plate change and blanket wash is the most satisfying thing. It takes 50 seconds to put the plates on and do a blanket wash."
The Komori user
Remous in Somerset installed its five-colour Komori Lithrone LS29H, complete with KHS-AI self-learning control interface, in March. To say it was a leap forward from the existing 10-year-old B2 press is an understatement. "We were bending plates and setting up ink keys before, and it all took time," explains director Alan Bunter. "Now at the end of a run we press the automatic makeready button, the press de-inks on the last 50 sheets, washes the blankets, inks up to the new profile - which is pulled in automatically from prepress - changes the plates and does another 50 sheets to get the colour up for the next job. Colour management is all done on one screen. You set it up and off it goes, and the best thing about it is it plays the theme tune to Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, or a poor version of Rocky while it's doing it! Komori says you should be ready to run in 50 sheets and most of the time you can.
"This is genuinely what we are doing. Printing was holding things up previously but not any more. Every job we do is making ready at 12,000sph and it's a race to keep up with the press - it can be ready before we are. If I have a concern it's that pre-press can't make plates quickly enough."
In a nutshell "Things we used to do manually that took half an hour, the Lithrone now does itself in five minutes."
The Heidelberg user
Swindon's ESP Colour put in a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75, in a five-colour plus coater configuration, at the beginning of 2009. It's a noteworthy installation for a number of reasons, not least because the 75 replaced a B1 machine. "The new generation B2 is more productive than older B1 presses," asserts managing director Anthony Thirlby, who explains the firm's way of working: "We have a completely automated front end, right from enquiries and estimating through to platemaking. Everything works to an automation formula right from the outset. We have one person per shift working in pre-press, and they make more than 2,000 plates a week.
"This is our first XL press and it's fantastic. We got our heads around the technology from day one, and it took us three or four weeks to get the pre-press right - tuning all the curves and dotgain to work with Inpress Control most effectively. We run 99% of our work to ISO 12647, and the occasional proof supplied job would still be made to our profiles. We're trying to push the technology upstream as much as possible. The press has everything on it: Colour Assist, Intellistart, and Inpress Control. We are achieving 145 hours of sellable time on 120 shifted hours, or 110% utilisation of our press hours, and it's all down to Inpress Control. Going forward we would not buy another machine without it, because it takes out all the subjectivity. We have produced £3.2m in sales value on that one machine. We run the business on the basis of added-value per press hour. It's a competitive trade, so this is a way of generating margin out of efficiency."
In a nutshell "We are achieving five-minute makereadies day in, day out."
The Manroland user
St Ives installed a Roland 700 with DirectDrive at its Crayford plant in 2008. With the subsequent closure of that facility the 12-colour press - the only DirectDrive machine in the UK at present - has been relocated to the group's Bradford site, which is part of the St Ives Direct operation. It's been up and running there since the beginning of this year. The press is fitted with automatic plate loading and the full suite of Manroland's QuickChange modules for fast makereadies.
The DirectDrive feature involves a servo motor on each unit, allowing each one to be driven independently. When St Ives first installed the machine it described it as effectively being ‘a press and a half' because of the amount of makeready time saved across a shift. Group marketing director Rob Kelly says: "We've experienced significant improvements in makeready times, by an average of 40%. The online machine monitoring is also an invaluable tool in effective machine management from a maintenance point of view. In addition, it improves our effectiveness in terms of lean manufacturing."
In a nutshell "It fits into our overall policy of added-value production and differentiating ourselves."
The Mitsubishi user
Nottingham's Central Colour bases its business model around a single B1 press and its strategy involves re-investing in a new machine every three years. As such, it was already familiar with the benefits of modern press control systems when it bought Europe's first Mitsubishi Diamond V3000 at Drupa in 2008, opting for a six-colour with coater configuration.
"Because we change every three years there was less to get used to, but makeready times are still down quite a lot," says director Andy Baxter. "With this new model we are also running shorter-run work because of the smaller makeready times so we are benefiting from being able to do that type of run more efficiently. It's fast and it's quiet and our customers love the disco lights down the side - customers who've been passing print for 30 years still think it's amazing when they see it - so we decided to move things around in the factory to show it off. Because it's so efficient, everything stays clean too, the whole process is much cleaner. In 18 months it has done almost 35m impressions - on one night shift a few weeks ago we did 22 different A1 posters. We are putting more jobs through a week, so we are saving on overtime too."
In a nutshell "Our printers absolutely love it."
