Offset Printing
Herbert Walker starts the new year with a new press
Tuesday 27. January 2009 - Herbert Walker in Shipley started the new year by commissioning a new Speedmaster XL 105-5+L (five-colour with coater), a machine which it believes will give it more than double the output of the SM 102 it replaces.
After undertaking a Heidelberg business advisory programme the company found it was able to confidently invest in five rather than six units and a straight press rather than a perfector. The 13 year old SM 102-6-P+L is being sold through dealer BBR.
“We hadnt appreciated how little work we were perfecting before this analysis was done,” says Stephen Whitley, managing director. “Increasingly greetings cards use inserts so are printed one side only. Also we already have six- and seven-colour CD 102 perfectors and a six-colour B2 press so a straight five-unit made sense. We expect this press to double or even give us two and a half times more work than the press it replaces.”
New contracts have been placed with the company already, giving it a good start to 2009. It handles a broad range of work including direct mail, commercial print, greetings cards and some packaging and it frequently uses heavy boards, up to 1mm thick, which can be handled easily on the XL 105.
The press comes equipped with inkline cartridges and its own dedicated ImageControl spectrophotometer.
“We put ImageControl in for our CD 102 six- and seven-colour presses a year ago and we have seen significant benefits in quality and makeready times as a result. We wouldnt have a press without spectral measurement now,” says Mr Whitley. “We have coating on all our presses, partly to give work an aesthetic lift but also to meet the tightest deadlines.”
The XL 105, the company believes, will give it the opportunity to offer keener prices and to make substrate and size changes faster, maximising its flexibility.
“People have said to us were brave to invest in the current market but were confident its the right decision. The advantages are clear,” says Mr Whitley.
The company has platesetting in place which can cope with the larger format press and it is beefing up its guillotining capacity with a Polar 137XT Autotrim. Given that this replaces a 40 year old machine, Herbert Walker can have had no doubts about the robustness of the technology.