Time for Revolution

With Anicolor, Heidelberg is making offset printing on smaller runs even more profitable. Its short inking system, which is simply revolutionary, is now available as an option for the Speedmaster SM 52 four-color press. It is not just that it reduces setup times and paper waste to a minimum; it is also straightforward and easy to use and only requires standard consumables.

Time is money. Order processing is expected to be done faster and faster, without, of course, allowing quality to slip. Digital printing itself has caused a fundamental change in customer expectations for time. At the end of the day, customers just don not care whether long or short runs are being asked for. "With the new Anicolor inking system, in comparison to our present systems, there can be up to a 90 percent reduction in paper waste, depending on the item being printed. In many cases, the 20th, sometimes even the 50th sheet is just as good in regards to the coloring as the 200th one, without me having to set the ink zones. If I am quick with the register, too - and this is no problem with true-to-register plate stamping and Autoplate - then that provides savings in time and reduction in paper waste that nobody would have thought possible on a printing press that in all respects operates like any other. If I do not actually want to print variable data, something which clearly is pretty rare, then the offset printing press is what I would prefer for production," explains Stephan Schück, Product Manager for Anicolor at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen. Not having to perform ink zone settings on the zoneless Anicolor inking system reduces setup times by about 40 percent. This in turn results in increased printing press availability of around 25 percent.

Revolution. Anicolor represents a pioneering achievement from the Research and Development Department at Heidelberg. "The real revolution in this technology is that everybody up until now has been claiming that it is impossible for an anilox inking unit and dampening system to deliver high quality. And now our developers, with their know-how and experience, have managed it after all! Now we have an inking unit that gives outstanding coloring and at the same time is so quick that we really have to get a move on during order changeover. And all this is using standard offset ink," says Schück with some conviction, adding: "Interest in this technology is huge, and although we were clearly confident of success, even we have been rather surprised. Even those who were very skeptical admit we have an outstanding engineering achievement and predict that the technology has massive potential. It has been no surprise to see the Speedmaster SM 52 and Anicolor short inking unit drawing the crowds at the most recent Ipex in Birmingham, where we presented the press for the first time."

Working more profitably. Why do you need to improve a press that is already the best in its class? The answer is actually quite simple - modern printing plants have to work at ever increasing levels of profitability. "This is why we started production of Anicolor presses in December of 2006 using four offset units ideal in all types of four-color printing. It is quite a long time now since the first presses were all sold to customers throughout the world. For spot colors, we would like to gain a bit more experience with field testing before we throw the switch for general production," comments Schück.

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