Page 16 - Print21 November-December 2022

Cover Story
Always a step ahead -
Heidelberg postpress solutions
Finishing solutions remain a key focus for the world’s biggest press manufacturer, with its investment in the development of folding, guillotine and die-cutting systems reaping rewards for print and packaging businesses the world over.
Heidelberg continues
to lead the way in productivity throughout the entire production process. Whether
it be prepress, printing, cutting, folding, or packaging requirements, Heidelberg is there to assist its partners with the latest technology, OEE, service and support.
As its partners have embraced new technology in the pressroom over the last few years, bottlenecks may then occur in different areas of production such as postpress. Polar, Stahl and
its OEM partner MK Masterworks have several innovative solutions in this area, which we examine a little further below.
Polar
Heidelberg says the postpress area of cutting offers a great deal of potential for improvement in production.
A solo high-speed cutter reaches its limits above a certain press output. The high-speed cutter is at a standstill during manual loading and unloading of cut material, hence valuable production time is lost. A typical cutting operation consists of the following processes: loading, manual programming, cutting, unloading.
In the case of a solo high-speed cutter, it can be assumed that approximately 35 per cent of the time of the cutting process must be spent on loading material, and
Above
Mastermatrix 106 CSB: Specifically optimised for higher machine speed, up to 9,000 sheets per hour
15 per cent on programming, with only about 25 per cent of the time spent on the actual cutting. The last step in the process chain, unloading the cutting material, takes the remaining 25 per cent of the time.
The time taken by the supporting processes can be significantly reduced with a Polar Cutting System 200, which includes a stack lift, an automatic jogger and a Transomat unloader. Existing high-speed cutters can easily be retrofitted with peripheral equipment.
The stack lift moves the cutting material to an ergonomic working height. This not only speeds up loading, but also reduces the strain on personnel. From there, the material can be fed to the automatic jogger, which precisely aligns the material. Parallel cutting is possible during the automatic jogging and spreading process. After cutting,
the Transomat unloader unloads
the cut products onto a pallet with edge accuracy. During the unloading process, the next cutting layer can be prepared or cut.
A Polar Cutting System 200 increases productivity by up to
100 per cent compared to a stand- alone high-speed cutter, improves quality and thanks to its ergonomic arrangement is easy on personnel, thus providing a solution that can prevent finishing from continuing to be a bottleneck.
Stahlfolder TH / KH 82-P
The Stahl range of folders carry forward the peak performance concept. Heidelberg says the Stahlfolder TH 82 -P folding machines set the benchmark for productivity and quality. Since 2016 it has placed 180 such units in the marketplace, whilst a further 70 units of the KH 82-P model can also be found worldwide.
The PFX feeder introduces the flat sheets into the folding system shingled, which helps achieve a folding output of up to 18,000 sheets per hour. This means that the Stahlfolder TH 82-P can keep pace with production on the Speedmaster XL 106, so that the peak performance in sheetfed offset printing can be carried seamlessly through to postpress.
16 Print21 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022