Deltor Communications has installed what is the UK’s first Komori Lithrone G840 Advance. It replaces a ten-colour Roland 700 at the Saltash printer, with the Mabeg sheeter and ink pumping system retained for the new machine.
The 15,000sph B1 press will be four times as productive as the press it replaces says Deltor managing director Sam Shannon. This is thanks to a faster running speed, the improvements in automated makeready and smoother sheet handling over the older press. This is the first long perfect B1 Lithrone in the UK with the latest Advance specification.
It will deliver a significant reduction in waste, which was a key reason for the investment. The company has previously run Komoris and operates MBO folders, now part of the Komori group. Shannon says: “We have a good relationship with Komori, we like their product and decided that this was the road that we would go down.
“Their engineers have been fantastic during the installation.”
The Roland, installed in 2007, had become expensive in terms of maintenance and cost of ownership. It was problematic in terms of make ready and needed issues in the delivery restricted running speed on some papers.
With Komori the latest version of Komori’s PQA automated makeready technology to pull the press into register and colour on eight units in a maximum πof 50 sheets, closed loop colour controls and comparator that compares what is printed with the approved PDF, the press is highly automated.
Shannon says: “On section work, the technology accelerates our drive to be as close to zero waste as possible on makereadies. We can queue the jobs, press the button and go.”
This helps with customers that want to be environmentally aware and to reduce costs. The decision on the configuration was made following a visit to McAllisters in Scotland which runs a long perfecting B1 Lithrone. Improvements in inks have reduced the need to apply a water based coating to seal the sheet. The Japanese machine requires less energy than its German counterparts and runs without IPA.
Deltor has installed the press on a plinth, enabling it to run deeper piles at the feed and delivery. It is specified to run 600 micron materials with the press running in straight mode will be able to print six-, seven- or eight-colour jobs if required. “The Komori is a fantastic design,” Shannon adds.
The £2 million investment is timely. “We are back to pre pandemic levels of business, and are receiving a strong demand for estimates and quotes. So we feel we will need that additional capacity and hope to continue the growth into 2023. We have bolstered the sales team through recruitment.
“When we bought the Roland we felt at that time that Komori would not have been right for us,” he says. “That has changed thanks to a completely new chassis and a perfecting unit that has been completely reengineered. And operation is really, really user friendly.”
Komori UK managing director Steve Turner says: We have a number of the new Komori G40 Advance model presses installed in the UK with more on order. The Deltor machine is the first UK installation of an Advance long perfector, which has new production features focused on high return on investment for our customers.”
