Heidelberg unveiled at its UK open house in Leeds earlier this month the concept of going into full print production without pulling a sheet.
Prinect Inpress Control will be sold alongside the company's Image Control and Axis Control spectrophotometric systems, of which there are now 150 in the UK, and will be available on new Speedmaster CD 74 and Speedmaster XL 105 presses.
Inpress Control is housed inside the press above the impression cylinder of the last printing unit. In a perfecting press an additional unit can be located prior to the perfector so that both sides of the sheet are measured and controlled.
Colour and register is measured from a new and smaller colour control strip, which can be monitored and measured at speeds of up to 18,000sph,
“Inpress Control will turn the concept of makeready upside down,” says Heidelberg product manager Gernot Keller. “The operator just takes new paper and plates and continues printing again immediately after the transfer of the new ink profiles and other job data.” He says tests have shown good colour can be achieved in under 100 sheets.
Kurt Paredis, works manager at beta test site Haletra in Belgium, says: “Trends can be spotted early and changes to, for example, dampening, can be made before problems may occur.”
Ralph Myers, owner of MPress in Kansas City, tested the system for three months on a Speedmaster CD 74-6LX. “We produced twice the amount of work we did before in the same number of hours.”
Lindy Graversen, managing director of Digitalhuset in Vejle, Denmark, says: “Our productivity has gone up by 30-40% and the print quality high and extremely consistent.”
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