Heidelberg unveils new Speedmaster CX 104 for commercial and packaging

Heidelberg’s latest world premiere, the new universal Speedmaster CX 104 Sheetfed Offset Press, went live at this year’s largest industry tradeshow thus far – China Print from June 23 to 27 in Beijing. The new CX 104 sheet format press offers commercial, packaging and label printing customers access to cutting-edge sheetfed offset technology from Heidelberg with an outstanding price/performance ratio. When selecting equipment variants, these customers benefit from the system’s free scalability – which extends all the way through to Push to Stop functionality – and also from tailored configurations with as many as 15 printing/coating units.

“Heidelberg is investing in the industry’s future. With the new, intelligent Speedmaster CX 104, we’re making our customers and Heidelberg itself far more competitive,” said CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer. “We’ve developed the press for a broad cross-section of customers and a wide range of applications to target the vast market potential. With our new universal press in the 70 x 100 format, Heidelberg is making state-of-the-art sheetfed offset technology available to a large number of print shops worldwide,” he pointed out.

Unique operation with intelligent assistance systems as standard

The Speedmaster CX 104 has a new, ergonomic design with excellent accessibility and offers a completely new operating philosophy (Heidelberg UX – User Experience), together with a variety of assistance systems included as standard. This provides the best possible support for operators at its Prinect Press Center XL 3 control station and at the press itself,said the OEM. To ensure that make-ready times are always kept short, a patented Intellistart 3 System automatically determines the make-ready processes required for the jobs to be produced. This involves continuously monitoring the press status and comparing it with the upcoming jobs. Intellistart 3 initiates the make-ready process and carries it out automatically. Intelliguide and the Intelliline colour-controlled LED elements on the printing and coating units tell operators the press operating status at any given time and indicate any manual intervention that is required. The newly developed Intellirun software takes operator navigation beyond the make-ready process, providing a preview of several planned jobs. This gives operators information prioritized according to the situation, which helps them prevent unnecessary downtimes by taking prompt action.

There are also a number of assistance systems based on artificial intelligence, such as Wash Assistant and Color Assistant Pro. These systems enable user-friendly, intuitive end-to-end operation, ensure stable processes that can be controlled precisely, and boost performance thanks to minimal makeready times, less waste, and lower energy consumption. Various Prinect color measurement systems also provide optimum, reproducible color stability with minimal waste. All in all, this means Heidelberg offers an integrated solution portfolio for the globally increasing level of industrialization at small and medium-sized print shop businesses.

New coating unit for efficient and flexible top-quality surface finishingOne highlight of the Speedmaster CX 104 is its new coating unit. It is based on XL technology, which places the focus on simplified operation, faster make-readies, and a further improvement in coating quality. Accessibility is optimized thanks to the arrangement of key elements. A 30% lower roller weight of the anilox roller makes the changeover process more ergonomic and far faster. Time savings of up to 75% based on one-person operation has already been confirmed under real-life conditions by pilot customers. The new coating blanket cylinder will make changing coating forms easier and up to 25% faster. A combination clamping system for coating blankets and coating plates maximizes the number of possible applications. The pairing of a new, compact bearing unit and a new chambered blade concept ensures homogeneous application of coatings, even at the highest speeds.

The Speedmaster CX 104 is the first press to use as standard the new “Pulse Laser Process” (PLP) screen rollers manufactured by Heidelberg. This patented process with targeted laser pulses enables particularly gentle engraving, which results in homogeneous coating surfaces and thus uniformly high gloss levels. These advantages come into their own with UV coatings and when using a helical engraved anilox roller with the new pressurized chamber blade system. Consistent pressure in the chamber suppresses foaming by preventing air pockets in the coating. Even at maximum printing speeds, excellent gloss results and effects can be achieved under stable production conditions. All functions can be operated intuitively on the coating unit itself, and many functions can also be controlled efficiently and adjusted remotely from Press Center XL 3.

Innovations in inking/dampening unit increase versatility
The inking/dampening unit on the new Speedmaster CX 104 is geared to optimum quality and productivity. Additional functions are also available for customers that are looking to further boost the performance of the inking/dampening unit, especially in UV printing. For example, integrated ink mist extraction cuts pressroom emissions, in particular at high printing speeds. An automatic ink agitator ensures high printing quality by keeping the viscosity of the UV ink constant. An additional washup solution supply is optionally available for mixed operation with conventional and UV inks. Switching between UV and conventional operation means the correct washup solution is used fully automatically and this makes the washup process far faster. The Auto Protect option protects the rollers in the inking units without a color assignment by applying Saphira Roller Protection Liquid. Intellistart 3 controls this process automatically based on the job data and printing unit assignment, which means no manual intervention is required. This also applies to deep cleaning – another extra – that’s automatically suggested when switching from dark to light colors so that the operator can complete other tasks in parallel, saving around five minutes per printing unit. “Series production of the Speedmaster CX 104 has already started and anyone anywhere in the world who is interested in ordering the new press can do so,” said Florian Franken, the Heidelberg product manager responsible for the Speedmaster CX 104. “A number of European pilot customers in the various market segments are already working successfully with our new solution and are reporting productivity gains of up to 20%, which exceeds even our own expectations,” he added.