Browns will this week begin to install a new Speedmaster XL106 at its Manchester factory. The press arrived over two days last week and once commissioned will replace five-colour plus coater XL106.
“It arrived on three trailers on Thursday and two trailers on Friday,” says managing director Danny Baldwin. “It many ways it’s a like for like swap and has a similar specification with the latest versions of Impress Colour and Heidelberg’s Push to Stop technology.”
The existing machine was installed in 2019 and is beginning to show its age. “As presses get older they slow down and have reliability issues. The new press will not exhibit these issues.”
The biggest difference between the machines comes with the CutStar reel sheeter. The existing press has a CutStar which is now 16 years old and has to be made ready separately from the press itself. The new press has the latest version of CutStar which is fully integrated with the press. “There will be benefits from that automation,” he says, “so we are hoping to save a few minutes at each makeready.
“The new style CutStar that is installed on the ten-colour XL75 that we installed in 2023 helped to give us 25% more output. We are hoping for something similar from the XL106, that it will reduce the need for overtime and relieve some of the pressure points in printing and binding.”
The company has already installed an MBO 960 folder, which will have a Palamides system to deliver three- and four-up banded products. The sheer variety of work that the business handles, seem 500 copies of one job to 3 million of another, from a 4pp DL leaflet to a card to a 16pp A5 signature. “We looked at a CoBo Stack robot, but because we are very much a traditional commercial printer rather than producing the same type of product, the benefits are limited,” he says.
The investment cycle is not finished. The company is seeking planning permission for a 450m2 extension to the building, again to relieve pressure on production. This will include a solid mezzanine floor to provide office accommodation and again ease pressure on the ground floor.
Once that is granted, before the end of the month Baldwin hopes, a letter of intent for a Heidelberg Jetfire 50 inkjet press will be turned into an order for the SRA3 machine.
“We see inkjet as quite exciting. We have a lot of small format work that it can take on and that for quality reasons we can’t produce on toner machines, especially on uncoated stocks. It would also take on some of the short run work that goes on the litho presses to allow them to concentrate on longer runs, and by producing high pagination short run perfect bound jobs as ready gathered blocks, so easing pressure on finishing.”
