The machine was shown at a Heidelberg open house at its Wiesloch-Walldorf factory last week, where it also unveiled its first beta customer, and will be given its debut at China Print, Beijing, from 9 to 13 May.
Although the press is technically still in beta testing, Heidelberg said it was available for order immediately as it comprises established technologies. The first commercial deliveries are slated for November. Pricing will sit somewhere between the XL 75 and SX 74.
The CX 75 shown at last week's Wiesloch event, a five-colour plus coater, is in the process of being dismantled and shipped to German commercial printer Werbedruck Petzold, which was also a beta site for the Speedmaster SM 52 in 1995.
Heidelberg senior product manager Frank Suesser said the development phase for the machine was around a year, which he described as “a fast project to get it quickly to the market".
Suesser said: “The thing I like most about it is that it’s a very small [footprint] machine, our smallest machine in the widths we have. This is ideal because space is always an issue, maybe not so much in Europe but if we look in other countries the width of the machine is of big appeal.”
Suesser added that the machine is based on the XL 75 platform, in terms paper travel and delivery, but uses a number of SX 74 components, including the suction head feeder, to minimise footprint and keep its price down. Unlike the XL 75, it does not come with a perfector option.
Intended for both the commercial and packaging markets, the machine comes in two formats, C Format, intended for commercial print, which takes sheet size of 530x750mm, and F Format, for folding cartons, taking sheets of 605x750mm.
Due to its double diameter impression cylinders, the CX 75 can take substrates ranging from 0.03mm to 0.6mm in thickness.
It comes in either four, five or six colours with coating unit, printing at a top speed of 15,000sph, and, at 2.8x2.1m is Heidelberg’s narrowest B2 press. It has a fully automated wash programme as standard, but Suesser said the machine cannot be configured with full automation as with Heidelberg’s Push to Stop-specified XL 106 machines.
However, it can be fully integrated with Heidelberg’s Prinect Press Centre 2 digital workflow, allowing for makereadies of less than five minutes and easy data transfer.
Suesser anticipates the machine will do well in the UK market.
“The UK market is an excellent market for the SX 74 and there is a huge [potential] install base for this machine, especially if customers want to grow and go to different markets, where packaging is more involved,” he said.
A four-colour CX 75 will be debuted at China Print running Heidelberg’s DryStar LED technology.
Earlier this year, Heidelberg’s new chief executive Rainer Hundsdörfer announced plans to revamp its organisational structure to align it with “the digital future”, with a number of potential acquisitions in sight.
Heidelberg recently announced a €50m (£43m) investment to fund a new development centre at the Wiesloch site.
