The press giant said its Prinect Inpress Control is unique as it is integrated within the press itself and measures colour at speeds of up to 18,000 sheets per hour, eliminating the need for manual evaluation.

“Prinect Inpress Control will turn the concept of makeready upside down,” said Heidelberg product manager 70x100cm Gernot Keller.

The company cites one of its beta testers, Denmark-based Digitalhuset, as improving productivity by between 30% and 40%.

As well as speeding up production, the device also saves on sheet and ink wastage.

Heidelberg UK sales director Jim Todd told printweek.com that the savings would depend on the set-up and production demands of individual cases. However, the company claimed the trend towards shorter runs would make the Inpress Control pay off.

“It depends on how many makereadies the customer is doing,” said Todd. “The more makereadies you’re doing, the quicker the investment will pay back.

“You could imagine that you might save 10 minutes pre-makeready and might save 150 sheets per makeready. If you’re doing 10 makereaies a day, you’d be saving 100 minutes.

“We’ve looked at a potential return on investment of between 1.1 and 1.5 years using B1 presses, B2 presses, and perfecting presses.”

Todd said Inpress Control assesses colour using spectrophotometric measurements of LAB values, which is fed back to the main console and will depend on each press being properly calibrated and configured in the first place.

Maintenance is minimal, with the sensors needing to be wiped twice a week, the company said.

Inpress Control is available on new Heidelberg XL 105 and CD 74 presses, with shipments likely to begin September 2007.