The Debenhams Annual Report will be one of the first jobs on the inplant's new Speedmaster CX 102-5+L, a B1 five-colour press with inline coating, which is to be delivered to the Taunton plant this month.
"Fast makereadies to render us competitive on very short run work, the ability to run a very wide range of paper and board substrates plus high up-time to enable us to provide consistent service levels to the business were the criteria which dictated our choice of press," says Chris Tester, director of print operations at Debenhams.
"Convincing factors included Inpress Control which offers fantastic productivity advantages but also Heidelberg's infrastructure including service, parts supply and support. We've recognised the huge strides that Heidelberg has made to develop a press with much faster makeready and greatly reduced paper waste. This dovetails with our own efficiency, cost saving and environmental objectives."
The company holds ISO 14001 certification and, as part of that, is committed to reducing its environmental impact. The Speedmaster CX 102 with Inpress Control will significantly cut start up waste and it also has the potential to run IPA free. The press will also enable efficient running of lighter weight paper stocks, potentially further reducing paper consumption.
Quality is also key and Debenhams has ISO 9001 certification is in place. The aim is to work to much tighter tolerance on colour in the future.
The press replaces a Speedmaster SM 102-8-P and a SM 74-5, reflecting the greater productivity of the latest generation press and a change in market demand. Heidelberg sees the CX 102 as a press fully capable of outputting 45 million impressions a year.
This will be the company's first press with an inline coater which will provide the opportunity for a wide range of finishes (high gloss, Drip Off etc) and even faster turnrounds as work will come off dry from the press and can be processed immediately without fear of marking. Using standard inks and coating at the end is the most effective means of running productively and having dry sheets off the end of the press.
"One of the great attributes of the CX 102 is its ability to print on a wide range of stocks. For some point of sale applications where we currently print on digital flat bed, litho printing directly on to 1,000 micron board now becomes a possibility," says Mr Tester. The press can adjust quickly and automatically to deal with the next job on 70gsm or even lighter stocks for mailing applications, for example.
The range of work handled by the plant varies greatly and includes Reports, instore Point of Sale material, short run press packs and a wide range of marketing literature. It handles all Debenhams print requirements but also works with a number of third party customers. The average run length is 3,000 but varies widely, from 150 sheets up to 250,000. Mr Tester says that this press with inpress Control re-draws the line between litho and digital.
Debenhams plans to send two operators for pre-installation training, taking advantage of courses run by Heidelberg at its National Showroom in Brentford.
