Speedmaster XL 75 – User Report: IDMM

Efficient print production at French print shop IDMM thanks to three new Speedmaster XL 75 presses. Much shorter makeready times and 20 percent higher productivity.

French print shop IDMM installed three new Speedmaster XL 75 presses at its new production site near Lyon: one Speedmaster XL 75 four-color press and two Speedmaster XL 75 five-color presses, all three equipped with a coating unit and Prinect Inpress Control. "On a site covering a total area of 5,000 m2, we have built a 2,000 m2 pressroom that makes the logistics of the print job production process transparent. This creates clarity for all our staff in their day-to-day work and offers our customers greater reliability in production combined with a higher-quality end product," explains IDMM president Françoise July. The print shop, which employs 22 staff, has just celebrated its 18th anniversary and considers it important to regularly mod-ernize its production facilities. IDMM's varied product portfolio covers every-thing from brochures for the mail-order trade to the elaborate commemora-tive publication that it has sent out primarily to local customers. The print shop processes all kinds of printing stock, ranging from 70 to 600 gsm, in runs of anything from 500 to more than 300,000 sheets. "Due to the mar-ket's declining print volumes and, above all, increasingly short runs, we needed to rethink our company to enable a faster response while also en-suring top quality," stresses managing director Patrice Marta.

The new Speedmaster XL 75 presses completely satisfy the requirements for print speed, fast plate changes, and print quality. "Our three new Speedmaster XL 75 presses have standardized our equipment and made us very flexible. We can print our jobs on any of the three machines and always be sure of achieving an equally good result. Makeready times are now much shorter and we estimate that this has boosted our productivity by around 20 percent," says a delighted July. For example, IDMM now prints perfecting jobs on printing stock ranging from 70 to 400 gsm at a maximum speed of 15,000 sheets per hour without any interruptions. "We know we can rely on Heidelberg and our cooperation dates back many years. Cover-ing everything from prepress and Saphira consumables to postpress, we enjoy a high-quality service from a single source," underlines July.

 "We are the only print shop in the Rhône-Alpes region to have Prinect In-press Control on all its presses," says Marta proudly. This spectrophotome-tric inline measuring system integrated in the press controls register and color quality on the fly. "Inking up now requires fewer than 100 sheets with most of the jobs. After just two months, we have succeeded in cutting setup waste by 50 percent, and a further reduction is definitely possible," contin-ues Marta. Thanks to this higher quality, IDMM now intends to enter higher-end segments and reposition itself on the market.


Figure: Patrice Marta (center), managing director of the IDMM print shop, is proud of the three new Speedmaster XL 75 presses. He is now able to meet customers' toughest demands in terms of quality and on-time delivery.