Offset Printing

World Premiere for Heidelberger Druckmaschinen in Hall 2 at the Dusseldorf Exhibition Center

This year’s drupa trade show in Dusseldorf is putting the organizational skills of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) to the test. A 7,800 square meter exhibition area is being set up in a record time of just 28 days in Halls 1 and 2 at the Dusseldorf exhibition center. A special truck is needed to deliver the Speedmaster XL 162 sheetfed offset press - a giant weighing in at over 200 tons.

Monday 12. May 2008 - Teams working in two shifts build a Speedmaster XL 162 weighing over 200 tons

This year’s drupa trade show in Dusseldorf (http://www.drupa.de) is putting the organizational skills of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) to the test. A 7,800 square meter exhibition area is being set up in a record time of just 28 days in Halls 1 and 2 at the Dusseldorf exhibition center. “We made a start on May 1. From May 29 through June 11, visitors and customers will be able to see a complete printshop incorporating prepress, press, postpress and networks. This would normally take six months to set up,” states Franz Haaf, Technical Manager in charge of the Heidelberg trade show presentation. Haff is confident that four weeks will prove sufficient on this occasion. After all, this is his eighth drupa working for the press manufacturer.

Things really started to take shape on May 7, with the infrastructure in place on schedule. The Speedmaster XL 162 sheetfed offset press – a giant weighing in at over 200 tons – arrived first thing in the morning at 7.30 a.m. Obviously, the largest press that Heidelberg has ever built could not be transported into Hall 2, which is eight meters high, in one go. Overnight, a special truck brought the individual components from the Heidelberg production site in Wiesloch/Walldorf to the exhibition center in Dusseldorf where two eighty-ton heavy-duty cranes will first lift the 41-ton paper delivery from the loading area. The unit is an impressive 30 meters long. After the paper delivery comes the 23.5-ton coating unit, followed by six 23.5-ton printing units and, finally, the 17-ton paper feeder. “From 2 p.m. we will be receiving new components every three hours. If everything goes according to plan, the Speedmaster XL 162 will be fully assembled in Hall 2 by 6 p.m. on May 8. Teams are working in two shifts to ensure this is the case”, explains Haaf.