Heidelberg has demonstrated a Speedmaster XL106 running at 21,000 sph, making it the fastest B1 press on the market the German company claims. With the step up in running speed the press can exceed the 100 million sheets a year barrier.
The upgraded press was put through its paces at full speed at a packaging open house at Heidelberg’s Wiesloch factory last week.
The press is configured for folding cartons and will go to Cardbox Packaging in Austria for further testing. A number of other beta test installations will take place early next year before the configuration enters serial production in the autumn.
In order to achieve the speed increase, Heidelberg has made 200 changes throughout the press starting with the feeder. This now has two servo motors to ensure a clean feed from the stack with stronger but lighter weight gripper bars that are intended to achieve clean transport through the press.
The pilot user has been operating an XL106, running this to maximum speed, since 2018. Consistently high productivity is an essential competitive tool in the fiercely competitive international packaging market says its managing director Roland Schöberl. “We are therefore pleased that we were able to put the new Speedmaster XL106, currently the world’s fastest sheetfed offset printing press, into operation together with Heidelberg, and we are expecting a significant leap in productivity after the start up phase,” he says.
The press is part of a €14 million investment in a new factory in Austria alongside its current plant. It has configured the new press with seven print units and two coaters. Two Masterwork Mastermatrix die cutting platens will process the printed sheets coming off the press at full speed. These run at a maximum of 9,000sph.
The new maximum speed lifts the Speedmaster from 18,000sph, a 15% increase in running speed with a greater net increase possible through faster makeready times and logistics around the press to load and unload loaded pallets.
Heidelberg’s announcement of the high speed press follows the release of upgrade kits for the now discontinued VLF Speedmasters. This might remain more productive in terms of cartons printed per hour by virtue of their extra large sheet format.
The fastest press currently in operation is arguably the Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 at Kenmore Envelope in Richmond, Virginia, which operates at 20,000sph and which the printer claims is the “fastest production press in North America”.
