Offset Printing
Performance Champion: Czech commercial printer set to break the 90 million printed sheets per year
Tuesday 11. April 2017 - Triangl print shop sets productivity records with Heidelberg
If there were a benchmark for the most productive print shops worldwide, the Czech company Triangl AG based in Prague would surely be right out in front. From start of 2015 to spring 2017 the Czech printer of magazines produced over 172 million printed sheets on its Speedmaster XL 106-8 P. This extremely high productivity of 86 million printed sheets per year, however, is currently being further increased. The perfecting press with CutStar roll sheeter and a maximum speed of 18,000 sheets per hour produced close to eight million sheets in March. The other machines also neatly fit into this record-breaking series: The previously employed Speedmaster CD 102 four- and five-color presses stably produced sheet after sheet already; however, the recently installed Speedmaster CX 102-5+L from the latest Push to Stop generation exceeds all expectations with a productivity increase of over 70 percent. With what has been delivered in the first two months, we expect to produce more than 70 million sheets per year.
The next investments are already scheduled: a further Speedmaster CX 102 with Prinect Inpress Control 2 will go into operation soon and another Speedmaster XL 106 eight-color press with perfecting, Prinect Inpress Control 2 and CutStar will be installed once the new production hall is complete. Prinect Inpress Control 2 will also reduce time and waste further during what is already full automated non-stop make-ready. In addition with the smart software Quality Assist, the press will also turn on the clock (good sheet counter) automatically after using colormetric evaluation by spectrophotometry. This fully automated job changing – from the last to the first good sheet until production starts – is unique in offset printing.
Specializing in the production of magazines, catalogs, and calendars in short and medium run lengths, the print shop Triangl operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. “We needed presses with extremely high speed, extremely short makeready times, and premium quality for different materials and paper formats, in other words maximum productivity, efficiency, and availability,” says owner Petr Kotýnek in describing his high requirements. The company, established by his father Antonin Kotýnek in 1992, has had a varied history, but in recent years has grown into one of the leading premium print shops in the Czech Republic, with a staff of over 100 and an export share of 13 percent. “We had already been in contact with Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG early on, and our experience had been nothing but good. As far as were concerned, Heidelberg develops the right technologies that best incorporate our needs,” confirms Kotýnek.
Top performance with digitized and automated processes
The full-service print shop Triangl is equally well-known among publishing houses, agencies, and industrial customers for its high quality and delivery reliability, and it is on a rapid growth course. The average runs range from 4,000 to 8,000 sheets. With regularly more than 40 jobs per day, no job is on the press for more than an hour.
Maximum productivity is made possible by digitized and automated processes. What secured the order for the newest presses was industrial production with automation components like the Prinect Inpress Control integrated color and quality measurement and control system, fully automatic plate changer and the Intellistart intuitive operating software. The makeready time on the Speedmaster XL 106-8-P is just three minutes, making it almost two and a half times faster than the older presses. On the Speedmaster CX 102-5+L it is just 4.5 minutes, which is thus 35 percent below the values of its predecessor. The mean production speed, on the other hand, was increased by 20 percent to 14,000 sheets per hour. This high productivity is supported by Saphira consumables, in this case mainly printing plates and printing supplies that are optimally tailored to the presses. In 2016, the print shop used over 170,000 plates. The high availability is ensured by Heidelberg service, and especially the remote service.