Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) presents a new universal press: With the new Speedmaster CX 104, Heidelberg aims to further expand its position in the growing packaging segment and meet the increasing demand for flexible printing systems with different automation solutions and variants in the commercial printing sector.
The new press with sheet format 104 is designed to give customers in commercial, packaging and label printing access to the latest sheetfed offset technology from Heidelberg. Customers benefit from the free scalability of the system when selecting the equipment variants, right up to the Push-to-Stop functionality and also from Customised configurations with up to 15 printing and coating units.
„Heidelberg is investing in the future of the industry. With the new intelligent Speedmaster CX 104, we are significantly strengthening the competitiveness of our customers and that of Heidelberg. We have designed the press for a Broad customer segment and range of applications and thus address a broad market potential. With our new universal press in the 70×100 format, the latest sheetfed offset technology from Heidelberg is available to many print shops worldwide.“ Rainer Hundsdörfer, Chairman of the Management Board at Heidelberg
Intelligent assistance systems in the luggage
The new Speedmaster CX 104 comes in a new ergonomic design with good accessibility and offers users a completely new operating philosophy (Heidelberg UX) as well as many new features. Assistance systems as standard. The patented Intellistart 3 system automatically determines the necessary set-up processes for the orders to be produced to ensure consistently short set-up times. To do this, the status of the machine is permanently monitored and compared with the subsequent orders. Intellistart 3 starts and implements the set-up process automatically. Intelliguide and the colour-controlled Intelliline LEDs on the printing and coating units indicate the operating status of the machine to the operator at all times and signal any manual intervention required.
With the newly developed Intellirun software, operator navigation is also extended beyond set-up and has several planned orders in advance at a glance. This provides the operator with prioritised information depending on the situation, which helps him to act in good time and thus Unnecessary downtimes to be avoided.
There are also other assistance systems based on artificial intelligence, such as the Wash Assistant or the Colour Assistant Pro. They enable user-friendly, intuitive operation and ensure precisely controllable and stable processes as well as increased performance with minimised makeready times, less waste and energy consumption. Various Prinect colour measurement systems also offer optimum colour control, Reproducible colour stability with minimal waste. In this way, Heidelberg aims to offer an integrated range of solutions for the increasing degree of industrialisation in small and medium-sized print shops worldwide.
Speedmaster CX 104 with coating unit for flexible finishing
One highlight of the Speedmaster CX 104 is the new coating unit. It is based on XL technology, which focuses on simplified operation, faster makeready and a further improvement in coating quality. Accessibility has been optimised thanks to the arrangement of key elements. The anilox roller change process is more ergonomic and significantly faster thanks to the 30 per cent reduction in roller weight: Up to 75 per cent time saving in conjunction with one-person operation have already been confirmed by pilot customers under practical conditions, according to Heidelberger. Thanks to the new coating blanket cylinder, coating moulds can be changed more easily and up to 25 percent faster in future.
A combination clamping system for coating blankets and coating plates offers maximum application flexibility. The combination of a new compact bearing and a new chamber doctor blade concept ensures homogeneous coating application even at the highest speeds.
The new „Puls Laser Process (PLP)“ anilox rollers manufactured by Heidelberg are being used as standard on the Speedmaster CX 104 for the first time. This Patented process with targeted laser pulses enables particularly gentle engraving, which results in homogeneous coating surfaces and thus uniformly high gloss values. These advantages are particularly evident with UV coatings and the use of a Haschuren roller with the new pressure chamber doctor blade system.
Constant pressure in the chamber prevents air pockets in the paint and thus suppresses foaming. This means that high gloss results and effects can also be at maximum printing speeds under constant production conditions. Intuitive operation of all functions of the coating unit is possible at the factory, and many functions can also be operated efficiently and remotely via the Press Centre XL 3.
„The start of series production of the Speedmaster CX 104 has already begun and interested parties worldwide can order the new press,“ says Florian Franken, Product Manager responsible for the Speedmaster CX 104 at Heidelberg. „Several European Pilot customers in the various market segments are already working successfully with our new solution and report productivity increases of up to 20 per cent, which even exceeds our expectations.“
Source: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
