Offset Printing
ESPs Thirlby steps up and orders Speedmaster XL 75
Monday 26. January 2009 - AnthonyThirlby has been promoted from operations director to managing director at Swindon based commercial and publications printer ESP Colour and marked his arrival by placing an order for a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 to replace one of the existing B1 presses.
Close analysis of work showed that the key for the business was makeready time, up time and reduced material wastage rather than sheet size.
A Speedmaster CD 102-5+L has been traded out for an XL 75-5+P+L with Inpress Control spectrophotometry, Intellistart and Colour Assist software. It will be shipped from the Wiesloch factory to ESP for commercial running by the middle of February.
“As part of our Cap-Ex plan we had plans to replace the CD102 with another CD102 this year, only because it was the oldest of our presses and needed replacing before the quality and productivity it was producing started declining. However when we did a routine investment evaluation we soon realised the commercial and quality advantage of the XL 75. Not only did it give us similar if not slightly more capacity but at the same time it will enable us to control cost capacity requirements,” says Mr Thirlby.
ESPs business model is geared around makeready and overall efficiency without compromising on quality and with Inpress Control it will be able to get to sellable sheets faster, with greater control and less waste. It didnt need the speed of the XL 75 (although its always helpful) but it needed a robust model with speedy make-ready and the highest quality.
Mr Thirlby says: “This new press will run in excess of £3m of work a year for us and it will be a significantly profitable machine – we wouldnt buy it if not. We always do our ROI analysis very stringently and when we analysed this press against a 102 the analysis pointed us clearly towards the XL75.
The CD102 that the new press replaces was averaging 15 jobs per 24 hour day with an average run of 1,750 and majority of the work did not require a B1 format sheet. The work will transfer seamlessly across to the XL 75.
The five units give it scope for four process colours and a special and the perfecting gives even more flexibility with 2:2 work as it complements three existing perfecting presses. Coating means its corporate customers can benefit from faster turnrounds and work with greater aesthetic appeal.
ESPs operators cant wait to get on to the XL 75 with Inpress Control which is a spectrophotomer which automatically adjusts the press so that the colour consistency is retained throughout the run. This type of sophisticated control appeals to ESP which is very prepress- and Prinect orientated and which holds ISO 9001, ISO 14001, FSC, PEFC and ISO 12647 accreditations. The company works 24 hours, five days a week with a staff of 68.