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Pre-DRUPA musings
March 11, 2008
It’s about the beginning of April each fourth year that the buzz begins about what will be happening at DRUPA in Dusseldorf, Germany. The buzz began in earnest this morning with a number of press releases from
Heidelberg US. Among them was an announcement for the new wide format sheet-fed machines they are showing at DRUPA. These presses, which break the 40-inch limit Heidelberg has set for its entire existence (158 years), are big (obviously) and very capable.
The new XL145 and XL162 (57.09 and 63.78 in.) presses allow for tremendous productivity, and they do it in a relatively small space.
Komori's four-over-four LS-440SL is quite compact, considering it's a full 40-inch perfector. has a 40-inch press that I have admired since its release. That press is the LS440SL, an eight-unit perfector sheet-fed press. The impressive thing about this machine is its small footprint. It prints four-over-four (or more units) in a stacked arrangement that looks like a web press. But, it’s a sheet-fed machine and it is exceptionally successful in urban printing plants where floor space is expensive or unavailable.
One of the newly-announced Heidelberg XL presses. They come in two sizes: 57 and 63 inch press width.
The Heidelberg machines are designed similarly to the Komori, with four (or more) units on the top, and a matching number on the bottom. There are ladders up and down on both ends of the machine.
The advantage of any big press is productivity, of course. The cost of plates and make-ready is similar – regardless of the size. The speed of presses is about the same, somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 IPH, but the output is greater if you have a big one.
I once bid a coffee table book on a 29-inch sheet-fed press, and also on a 40-inch press. The 29 inch lost by a big margin because it required 60 plates and 15 runs. The 40-inch machine required only 30 plates and eight runs. A bigger press, though not necessarily more productive for book printing, has more real estate, and can produce more per cylinder turn than a smaller machine. For posters (especially movie posters, whose trim size is 28 x 40) packaging and similar large-sheet printing, these big machines are perfect (lots of unintentional puns today).
As I learn more about things DRUPAesque, I’ll report on them. New presses? New technologies? You can read about them here.
Posted by Brian Lawler on March 11, 2008 | Comments (0)
