Heidelberg has spent the last week celebrating its 175th anniversary at the company’s Wiesloch-Walldorf site in Germany, with over 1500 guests travelling from around the world for the official opening of its re-modelled ‘Home of Print’ customer demo Print Media Centre (PMC).
Heidelberg has a number of Print Media Centres around the world, but its re-modelled 'home' centre, spanning 9,000 sq.m. emphasises the company's claims to being the Home of Print
Jürgen Otto, CEO of Heidelberg, welcomed the mix of customers, suppliers, partner and local dignitaries, heralding the PMC as ‘the printing industry’s largest customer experience centre in the world’, covering an area of 9,000 m².
“Heidelberg has effectively been the Home of Print for 175 years and this centre reflects our growth strategy for our core business, which showcases Heidelberg as a collaborative total solution provider and end-to-end systems integrator for packaging and commercial printing,” said Dr. David Schmedding, Chief Technology & Sales Officer at Heidelberg.
The centre houses various end-to-end production systems and lines, in collaboration with partners such as Polar and MK Masterwork, including high-quality folding carton production with the Speedmaster series, high-volume folding carton printing with the new Boardmaster flexographic web printing system, and industrial label production using offset, digital, and flexographic printing through to commercial printing and hybrid digital/offset print production.
The entire Heidelberg portfolio has been incorporated into a single digital ecosystem comprising Prinect software, equipment (including postpress solutions and robotics), consumables, service, training, and consulting.
The concept is for customers to bring their own print jobs so that they can thoroughly test the machines based on their specific requirements. Around 120 Heidelberg ‘experts’ are on hand to assist and lend technical support.
Cartonmaster launch exemplifies collaboration opportunity
With the opportunity for enhanced customer collaboration obviously a key platform for the Home of Print, Heidelberg seized the opportunity to also formally launch its new Cartonmaster CX 145 press: a Size 6 press, format 1050x1450mm, based on the existing Size 6 Roland 900 press, and the product of a collaboration with fellow German offset press manufacturer manroland.
Whilst a collaboration with a company that historically might have been viewed as its arch-rival may turn some heads, Heidelberg’s strategy of using established print solutions in its workflow is now well-charted, collaborating with Ricoh in toner-based print, Canon in inkjet, and Masterworks (Heidelberg’s major shareholder) in finishing solutions.
The Cartonmaster, designed to address growing demand for long-run folding carton printing for food, beverage, and consumer packaging, will be available for delivery and installation next year. It’s hard to predict whether the press will be of interest to the Very Large Format (VLF) players in Australia, especially given that there are already existing Roland 900 and Koenig & Bauer 145 press installations in operation, both in packaging and display print applications. One advantage is that the press can be integrated into both the Heidelberg Prinect workflow and the workflow solutions of third-party suppliers, and customers can access performance data for their press in the Heidelberg Customer Portal.
