From project to performance

Bluetree was the first UK company to install a Landa press and the first anywhere with the S10P perfecting version. Four years ago, says Bluetree head of production Mark Young, it was a project and a bit of a challenge. “Landa stepped up to help us and now not only does it work well, it contributes as well.”

Just how much it contributes was discovered in June when the press was taken out of service for several weeks for a substantial hardware and software upgrade. This created bottlenecks around litho and digital printing. Bluetree had taken out its Xerox iGens and had installed an Indigo 100K, which, says Young, “is a beast”. 

He adds: “Nevertheless having the Landa down created a new problem that we hadn’t previously seen. That upgrade has really introduced some significant changes to make it a really strong proposition now. We are getting more work off the press and we need to keep pushing it. We can run at full speed with every sheet different. 

Previously it would take 40 seconds to switch from job to the next so to be able to run without those gaps is a real breakthrough.”

Landa calls this the Drop 8 upgrade significant in terms of increasing reliability and performance. There are changes to the user interface as well as to systems throughout the press to increase availability and an expected monthly output of around 1.2 million sheets to 2.5 million in normal usage.

Continuous running from job to job is just part of it. Given normal loadings that provides an extra 15 hours’ production time a month, increasing maintenance gaps gives 12 hours extra, extended blanket life and ease of replacement provides an additional 25 hours and the time to first sheet from switch on adds ten hours to availability with a further six hours resulting from improvements in registration and calibration. It has been called a transformational upgrade. 

Bluetree has yet to experience the full impact, though as volumes build towards the end of the year, the upgrades will be tested. the Landa becomes a press that Bluetree can rely on, so helping to balance the work as it flows around the factory. “We can make sure that we put the right job on the right press for it,” he says. “The Landa is a totally different machine and a unique proposition. I don’t think it will be for everyone and I still believe in the Speedmaster XL106. They complement each other well.”

It is not the only change that Young is overseeing. Just as significant will be the decision to switch from inline production on the two continuous inkjet lines to offline finishing. When these were installed, again at the leading edge of technology, the two Screen TruePressJet 520s ran inline to Technau cut sheet lines, leaving some guillotining work to be done. This became a bottleneck and led to excess overtime. 

Now the presses run to rewind units and the reels are processed offline. A Hunkeler has been installed, a mirror to machines installed at Solopress for example, to cut and stack finished piles of leaflets and so on. “I have been really impressed with the Hunkeler so far,” says Young. The change has also allowed the Screen machines to run at their full speed, adding: “There are so many opportunities.”