Since moving into a new 246,000sqft, single-story facility in 2007, Proteus, formerly Beck Carton Company, began replacing its old offset 50" presses. The new 40" XL 105 press joins a 57" six-color Speedmaster 145 XL VLF press purchased several years ago. Both presses receive postpress support from a Dymatrix 145 die-cutter and a Diana 115X folder-gluer with Diana Packer from Heidelberg.

"We've become an all-Heidelberg shop," noted Proteus executive VP and COO Tim Wayman. "We used to have a pair of 50" presses from another manufacturer, then we got rid of one when we went to the 57" format with our Speedmaster XL 145. That press is still our workhorse, but with the addition of the XL 105, we gain the built-in flexibility to offer our customers both large- and small-format work."
 
Thanks to a Prinect Inpress Control to monitor color and register on-the-fly at any speed, the new Speedmaster XL 105 is already producing makereadies at a full-rate speed of 18,000sph, Wayman added. "We produce considerably less waste with the XL 105 than had we continued to use our 50" press for smaller jobs."

Proteus has always had a packaging focus, but Heidelberg US VP for packaging Chris Raney told PrintWeek they're being joined in the space by more traditional commercial printers looking to diversify their business as some direct marketing and transactional printing stagnates. "The last few years of a tough economy have served to focus people's minds and as a result you're seeing an increased focus by commercial printers on the opportunities in packaging," he added.

The challenge he added is that packaging production is not really a segment that can be dabbled in. "I've been in the industry a long time and one of the problems I've seen is printers trying to take baby steps in the packaging space, buying a simple machine or investing in a small folder-gluer," Raney said. "But what they find is when they go to compete in the packaging space they're competing with real specialists who've got exactly the right equipment - so the successful ones are the ones that have purchased the right equipment the first time.

It also requires the right training. Proteus employees had originally trained intensively on an XL 105 at Heidelberg's North American Print and Packaging Technology Center while preparing to run the company's Speedmaster XL 145 XL VLF press, so were largely up to speed when the XL 105 arrived on the production floor.