Heidelberg Hypes Hybrid
Bob Hall has been reading reports indicating that Heidelberg will soon announce a hybrid print solution.
Heidelberg is going hybrid. That’s what the trade press has been talking about since late January when an article in the UK’s PrintWeek raised the subject based on Heidelberg sources. The original piece included some very challenging remarks from one Heidelberg executive about how the new set-up will make current high-end digital production presses “irrelevant.” That’s pretty bold. The new offering is expected to team a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52 with a digital color output device in the 80 to 90 ppm range—presumably from a current digital vendor. Software would decide which output option is best for a particular job and parcel out the work accordingly. The key, according to the PrintWeek report, is Heidelberg’s Anicolor keyless inking system which supposedly makes offset economically equal to digital output in the 250 to 500 sheet range. Heidelberg has worked in the digital arena before with the NexPress joint venture with Kodak. It also offered the QM 46 DI offset press for several years before dropping that product. The idea of a hybrid production workflow is nothing new. Offset and digital are working side-by-side in many shops and digital files can be purposed for either output method. Will this new Heidelberg offering be a hybrid game changer? Only time will tell. In any case, this development—along with the recent agreement with EFI to sell Vutek large-format printers—seems to indicate that Heidelberg has decided to look outside its own resources to offer digital options not available in the offset litho world.
