Stephens & George will not lose production capacity with the installation of a ten-colour XL106, despite it replacing two machines, one a ten-colour press installed five years ago.
The new machine will join two other Push to Stop generation XL106 presses, both eight-colour perfecting machines, in what was described last year as the most modern press hall in Europe. That description, by Heidelberg, is being upheld with the first fourth generation CutStar in Europe.
This is a new design of the reel sheeter that was expected to be seen at Drupa. Instead the new version was shown off in remote demonstrations. The main innovation, with the fourth generation of the CutStar, has an ability to handle lighter stocks.
Automation levels on the new machine are at Drupa 2020 levels and take offset printing a step closer to autonomous running. It will comfortably cope with the 75-80 million impressions a year the Merthyr Tydfil printer is expecting to achieve. And this comes with an average run length of around 5,500 copies from magazines, programmes and commercial work, so will have to cope with frequent makereadies.
The simultaneous plate changing, blanket washing and registration and colour control through Inpress Control 3, will make a section to section change going from stop to pass sheet on the next section in one and a half minutes. Intellistart 3 is also part of the specification, taking it a step beyond the XL106-8-P that was installed a year ago.
The company frequently orders more than one press for installation a year apart, regularly replacing machines before their technology becomes outdated. Andrew Jones, chairman, says: “During the pandemic, we realised the need for a new press, in order to give us an edge over competition.”
The latest generation of machines, introduced in Heidelberg’s recent Innovation Week, include LED strips on each print unit to indicate by colour where and what sort of operator intervention is needed.
The press is expected to arrive in Wales for installation in January.
As the company is not expecting to increase production capacity, even though its efficiency will increase, there is no pressure to invest further in the binders which received a Sitma paper wrapper last year. Its plate production is capable of the 20,000 it can consume each month.
