UK managing director George Clarke said the CD74 was the Jason Robinson of half-size presses, but also one of its most misunderstood presses.
The CD74 had been successful in the west and north of England, said Cavey, but had not done as well in the south. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to it, he added.
The Vario inking system remains as standard on the CD74 and is now available as an option on the Speedmaster 74. A four-colour version of the CD74 now costs from 578,000.
Heidelberg has also launched a range of products aimed at the UV printer that are designed to boost productivity by up to 25%.
It is rolling out CoolCure UV, which works by introducing a nitrogen chamber into the UV unit that pumps the inert gas onto the surface of the printing plate. Heidelbergs project manager for peripheral systems, Axel Becker, said it would halve the drying time of a UV-printed sheet.
Heidelberg has also launched InstantStart UV, a combination of hardware, software and services. The key to InstantStart is the new AIII cleaning solution that has a flame point of more than 55C, ideal for the high temperatures reached on a UV press.
Heidelberg demonstrated the developments during the opening of its Environmental Information Centre, housed in the Print Media Centre at its headquarters in Germany. It received the Optimized UV Printing certificate for the performance of the Speedmaster CD74 UV from a representative of the German equivalent of the Health & Safety Executive.
Story by Andy Scott and Tony Brown
