Heidelberg is committed to becoming the systems integrator for the print as the digitisation of the industry accelerates. “Digitisation is no longer a vision for the future,” chief technology and sales officer David Schmedding told 300 printers at the opening of Heidelberg’s Shift conference last week.
Outlining the challenges that printers face owing to shorter runs, faster delivery and labour shortages (as seems de rigour at any print event these days), he stressed the need to be able to control the flow of data around a business, to employ AI and deploy robots and automation to manage a hybrid production factory and so ”create new business opportunities”.
“We have sold 4,000 Prinect Business Managers worldwide with 1,250 devices from other manufacturers connected to what has to be a seamless connected system regardless of who produced the original machine,” Schmedding said. “We see ourselves the system integrator for our industry.”
The key tool for this will be Prinect Free Flow. This is being rolled out initially to connect digital presses, the Jetfire 50 and Versafire presses with plans to extend this to litho presses and finishing equipment. The event included presentations from early adopters, including beta site Meinders & Elstermann.
Volker Havel explained how Touch Free has been operational at the company’s digital print site since the summer of 2025, 18 months after the business agreed to trial the technology. It connects to the company’s Jetfire 50, Indigo 12000 and two Canon toner machines. It comes up with the most cost effective way to produce seven different product styles from a business card to perfect bound or stitched brochures.” But,” he says, “it’s not ready for offset yet.”
Customer stories of digitisation were interspersed with presentations on AI implementations and robotics. Demonstrations of the robot that Lunes Robotics is working on as well as other technologies took place in the Home of Print on the following day.
The Lunes robot is sourced as a torso, pair of arms, and series of cameras and sensors, but without a brain. The company adds its own software, developed to meet the requirements of the printing industry, which it says no other robots company is doing. According to CEO Andreas Reichert the over riding driver to develop industrial robots is a severe labour shortage developing in Germany with a shortfall of 7 million skilled workers predicted in coming years.
