Heidelberg is staging Shift 2025, a two-day conference and workshop event with a focus on helping printers with the digital transformation and automation process. The event takes place on 16-17 September.
Market research carried out by the press manufacturer has found that this is a key concern for printers around the world. Chief technology and sales officer David Schmedding says: “Automation is becoming all the more important for the competitiveness of print shops as print runs shrink, the volume of small jobs grows, staff shortages increase, and personnel costs rise ever higher. In this situation, attention is focusing on hybrid print production with an automated and increasingly AI-driven workflow.”
The organisation of the event falls in line with Heidelberg’s mission to become the industry’s systems integrator.
The first day of Shift 2025 is organised as a traditional conference taking place in the centre of Heidelberg. Speakers are drawn from Heidelberg customers from across Europe and includes Rob Cross from Micropress. Micropress is the first UK printer with Heidelberg’s plate to unit technology. It has also espoused automation where possible and made extensive use of robot arms to load sections to pallets of paper to ease pressure on operators.
The presentations will be made in English where possible as Heidelberg wants to attract around 250 decision makers to the event.
The aim is to have customers are their experiences alongside experiences from other industries and content from an academic point of view.
While the customers are Heidelberg customers, their experiences involve a range of integrators, software and other manufacturers. Micropress for example has experience of the MBO CoBo Stack robot arm for loading pallets.
The second day takes place in the Home of Print showroom in the Wiesloch factory and will be framed as a series of workshop sessions to enable participants to see firsthand the impact of automation and hybrid production, including Prinect Touch Free to bridge between Heidelberg’s litho and digital presses.
One presentation includes the Jetfire 50 and the Jetfire 75, the B2 inkjet press announced at Drupa and yet to be seen public.
