Customers Choose Best-in-Class Commercial and Packaging Solutions from Heidelberg

Heidelberg has announced the following new product installations: Hammer Packaging Installs First Speedmaster CX 102 Packaging Press in North America.

Hammer Packaging reports the installation of North America's first Heidelberg's Speedmaster CX 102 press, now in full production in its Rochester facility. The company chose an 8-color, UV-capable model with CutStar roll sheeter, Prinect Press Center with Intellistart operator guidance system, integrated Wallscreen, and Axis Control color measurement and control system. An integrated IST UV system utilizes the new Electronic Lamp Control (ELC) that enables the system to operate at very low energy consumption and take up 50 percent less floor space.

Following its evaluation of the press at the Heidelberg factory in Wiesloch, Germany, Hammer Packaging selected the Speedmaster CX 102 primarily for the trouble-free speed and efficiency with which the press handles the 2 to 3.2 mil film stock that is a staple of the company's package decorating repertoire.

"In the film category, the CX 102 expands our capacity and improves our redundancy during peak periods," said Lou Iovoli, Hammer's vice president of Strategic Partnerships, noting that the addition of CutStar makes Hammer's printing of film "even more cost-effective, based on the way it controls the sheet as it feeds into the press." Reductions in makeready time and set-up waste further validate Hammer's choice.

Positioned mid-way between the Speedmaster XL 105 and the CD 102, and targeted to high-end commercial, label and packaging printers, the Speedmaster CX 102 represents a new market segment in the 40" format. It makes key components of the Speedmaster XL platform available in the popular and well-established CD 102 format for the first time.

"With new equipment—especially in the packaging world—you need to have the assurance of predictability that will minimize inconsistencies in quality from job to job and run to run, even at the highest running speeds," Iovoli said. "Our two existing CD 102s have always performed precisely as billed, and we are getting the top-quality results we fully expected to see with the CX 102—after all, it's built out of the same platform with the transfer of key high-performance features of Heidelberg's flagship Speedmaster XL 105. And, since the format is the same as our CD 102s, we get built-in redundancy: The drum sizes are the same, so we can make plates and manage last-minute changes that also work with our CDs, when necessary."

The majority of Hammer's capacity supports the production of litho-based labels for the food and beverage industry, with web offset and flexo-printed labels accounting for the rest. The company is also world's largest producer of premium seed packets. Customers include numerous well-known national food and beverage brands. The $100 million company employs more than 400 people at three plants in the Rochester area, and is consistently named to the Top 100 privately held companies in Rochester, and the Printing Impressions Top 400 printers in North America.

Phil Vedda & Sons Printing, a full-service commercial printer in Cleveland, Ohio, recently added a state-of-the-art Speedmaster XL 75 5-color press with aqueous coater and extended delivery to its all-Heidelberg pressroom lineup. According to Jim Vedda, vice president production, the new press boosts the company's press capacity and enables it to fulfill growing client demand for same-day service. "We just have to crank it out," Vedda said.