Warwick Printing takes pioneering step into LED Push to Stop technology
Print Solutions
Warwick Printing has taken delivery of the first press of its kind in the UK. A Heidelberg Speedmaster CX102-4 LED Push to Stop press will extend the range of products the company can offer, enhance the colour quality it can provide, shorten turnaround times for its customers and be a more environmentally acceptable technology.
The press has arrived at the Leamington Spa business, and training was completed last week. It will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week in three shifts alongside, and with the same plate format as, an existing Speedmaster SX102-8-P long perfector.
‘We have adopted the brand name TrueColour and produced a brochure to show the more vibrant results we can produce on the new LED press, even on uncoated stocks, using colour lock technology,’ said Alan Young, director. ‘We think there will be great interest; it is something designers are looking for.’
Inks are dried by polymerisation with LED so sit on the paper rather than being absorbed into it with the dot spread that goes with that, giving outstanding results.
Adrian Weeks, business development manager, said: ‘We will also be able to print on boards and plastics so it will also allow us to extend our portfolio and to expand our commercial work alongside the core magazines, manuals and books we print. This bridges the gap between our SRA3 digital work and B1 litho production.’
As an ISO14001 and FSC accredited printer, Warwick Printing was keen to have a press that had good environmental credentials. LED-UV uses up to 90% less energy than conventional UV and the automatic formatting solution which directs the LED to the print area only, laterally and circumferentially, helps with that. In addition, Inpress Control colour and register tool means start up waste will be just 30 to 50 sheets. For many contracts today sustainability credentials are a prerequisite to tendering for the business.
These sustainability benefits and the make ready time of under one minute with the Push to Stop capability will more than counter the slightly higher cost of the inks. Push to Stop or automated printing is only possible with the adoption of the latest Prinect Inpress Control 2 on press spectral measurement device and Autoplate Pro plate changing. The new press has been linked into the company’s Prinect Pressroom Manager workflow which, in time, will be connected seamlessly to Warwick Printing’s Tharstern Management Information System.
‘The new press enables us to give designers and commercial customers more flexibility,’ said Paul Young, director. ‘For work on uncoated stocks we have had to live with drying times of two or three days. Now, with this technology, we can move work to the folders and guillotines instantly without fear of marking. We have always tried to accommodate late corrections but now customers can rely on us even more when they are working to especially tight deadlines.’
Without pallets of finished work sitting in storage, paper deliveries will become more flexible. There will be a more diverse range of papers selected, some bespoke for a particular job, and just in time deliveries will be possible.
The company has also taken delivery of a pile turner, increasing the materials handling around its guillotine which will take some of the strain off the operators and increase productivity to match the increased press throughput.
Warwick Printing says that on the magazine side its runs are typically 3000 to 20,000 and on the commercial side 5000 to 10,000. The Speedmaster CX102-4 LED can handle both short and long run work, operating at up to 16,500 sheets per hour.
