Inkjet & Digital Printing

The new Heidelberg Versafire and Prinect Digital Frontend Version 2020 offer flexible application options, particularly in conjunction with offset printing

Thursday 21. November 2019 - Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) continues actively to develop the digital solutions Versafire EV and EP for commercial applications by offering new hardware options for inline finishing as well as a new updated version of Prinect DFE which not only supports this but also comes with new functionalities. Thanks to this, customers will benefit from an improved integration of both print technologies and processes.

With the new feeder and postpress options, the new systems offer even more production versatility. The new Plockmatic banner feeder is designed for high-volume production of print products in the 330 x 700 millimeter format, for example for a six-page A4 flyer. There is also a new standard and booklet finisher with a double-slot delivery compartment for non-stop production. In addition, the booklet finisher can now staple and fold up to 30 sheets. The new air-assisted Interposer makes it possible to feed pre-printed sheets or unprinted separator sheets from two trays into the job. For example, the sheets can be pre-printed in offset and then – at the desired position – added to the digital prints. This makes fully flexible hybrid production of digital and offset possible and the advantages of both printing processes can be optimally exploited. In order to ensure high availability of the Versafire, the ease of maintenance has also been significantly improved.
Prinect Digital Frontend Version 2020 integrates the new functions in order to make maximum and efficient use of the new capabilities
The new functionalities in Prinect DFE Version 2020 support the expanded capabilities of the finishing hardware. The complete presetting of the feeder and finishing modules is integrated for a fully automatic production workflow.
The Prinect DFE Version 2020 also offers additional options for even more flexible impositioning or register sheet printing. Thanks to the PDF plug-in “Document Assembly”, training documents with register and separating sheets can now be conveniently prepared on a separate workstation. The resulting PDF can then be automatically processed in Prinect DFE Version 2020 and in the Versafire.
In addition, media-specific ICC profiles can be generated in a few intuitive steps in considerably less than ten minutes without specialist knowledge. These color profiles can significantly improve output quality, especially on tinted media.
Existing Versafire EV and EP systems can be upgraded with a firmware upgrade to connect the new finishing devices. The new Versafire options will be available worldwide as of December 2019.
“We are reaping the benefits of our long-standing partnership with Ricoh by offering our customers more and more options through a powerful digital printing system,” confirms Manuela Gomez, Head of Commercial Digital Printing at Heidelberg. “Prinect 2020 also gives us the opportunity to integrate the best of both worlds – offset and digital – and to become an integral part of our customers’ production system”.