SOUTHERN IMPACT ORDERS 10-COLOUR HEIDELBERG XL-106

Southern Impact has ordered a new 10-colour Heidelberg XL-106 five-over-five long perfector, which will join its six-colour B1 press, as the company ramps up its investment in new technology. 

The new XL-106 will arrive in March, and will replace the company's existing ten-colour XL-106, which it installed nine years ago. It will go into Southern's main Mount Waverley production centre.

Rod Dawson, managing director of Southern Impact said, “We have been running our current XL-106 most hours of the week for a long time, it has been our main workhorse, and it hasn’t missed a beat. Looking to the next ten years though, we wanted to have the most up-to-date model with everything new. The press we have ordered comes with full automation, colour management, waste reduction, and will provide the platform for us to go forward.”

The new press will run alongside the company’s six-colour B1, which is used for short-run, colour critical or POS work, and which will now receive in-field upgrades. Both presses are running 24 hours Monday to Wednesday, 12 hours plus overtime Thursday to Saturday.

The choice of new press was straightforward for Southern Impact, Dawson said, “We are a Heidelberg house, from prepress with Prinect, through the presses, to finishing, everything is fully integrated. We believe the technology is the best we can have. And over the years we have had zero complaints with service and support from Heidelberg, it has been first class.”

The Heidelberg XL-106 is the company’s “peak performance” press, running at 18,000sph in both straight and perfecting mode, and using artificial intelligence for ‘continuous process optimisation’. It comes with Integrated Speedmaster Operating System with intuitive touch operating concept, and when changing substrates using characteristic profiles has zero minutes additional makeready time, due to fully automated air settings. Plate change with AutoPlate XL 3 is less than one minute. Heidleberg says the" clear focus on operator-independent performance" on the new Speedmaster raises its Push-to-Stop philosophy to “a whole new level.”

Southern Impact will integrate the press into its Prinect digital workflow system.