Blue Star WEB has become the first commercial printer in the Asia-Pacific to install a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106-10-P+LX-LEUV ten-colour perfector with coater. Blue Star WEB produces catalogue, brochure and corporate web heatset printing for Australia’s leading magazine titles, publishers and businesses. It is part of the IVE Group which listed on the ASX just before Christmas. Blue Star Web general manager Darryl Meyer says, “Blue Star WEB is committed to producing work for our clients in the most efficient way possible. The Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106-10 offers single pass productivity which not only enables our production team to produce high quality and high speed work, but also gives us the flexibility to handle both high output and small production batches.” Blue Star Group CEO Matt Aitken adds, “We are delighted with the Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106-10 and are excited about the opportunities it provides for our customers. Blue Star WEB has a strong future and Blue Star is committed to investing in that future, just as we are across all of our operations.” Heidelberg says the XL106-10 has been purposely designed to produce the widest range of products with a maximum speed of 15,000 sph and has the capacity to print on a wide stock range from 0.03mm to 0.8mm. Heidelberg hopes the install will help Blue Star Web further enhance its capabilities and opportunities.
The Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106-10-P+LX-LEUV
It took 28 days for a team of Heidelberg engineers and electricians to install the 26 metre, 93 tonne machine. Blue Star WEB has built a fully enclosed and temperature controlled room to house the complete machine. The machine has been specified with up to five drying lamps and is able to run with both Low Energy and Hi Energy UV lamps. This enables Blue Star WEB to produce a wide range of products with all work completely dry as it exits the press and is moved to the bindery. Other features include the Interdeck dryers, which are capable of being moved to any position along the 10 printing units to suit special work, and the end of press dryers. These dryers are equipped with three lamps following the coating tower and are capable of drying high gloss coating at the maximum speed with the minimum power. As is the case with most new Heidelberg presses, this press is fitted with the Heidelberg Inpress spectrophotometric inline colour measuring system for measurement and press register combined with the autoplate pro-plate mounting. With the patented Heidelberg Hycolor dampening system and Saphira High reactive inks, the printing is as stable as conventional printing. Blue Star WEB is able to print with the same print characteristics as conventional inks with a small learning curve for the operators to adapt to the new technology. The Heidelberg Saphira consumables package allows high speed printing on both sides of the sheet with high quality, instantly dry sheets with full UV Gloss and with full piles. Heidelberg’s Managing Director Richard Timson says, “Everybody claims they have the biggest and fastest machine in Australia and the latest acquisition made by Blue Star WEB is just that.”
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