New technology for a new business venture

CEC, established in 1974, has gone through various business transformations over the years – from envelope manufacturer to traditional offset printer to a pure digital shop. Now, after almost 50 successful years in business, CEC is undergoing another evolution – this time from conventional commercial printer to producer of short run labels, packaging, and wide-format printing. Rather than look to a new manufacturer to accommodate its business goals, CEC decided to invest in a new Versafire EP after its exceptional experience with Heidelberg’s original digital print engine, the Versafire CV.

“When we first got into digital many years ago, we used a variety of products from different manufacturers but were never satisfied,” said Owner Amit Chokshi. “In 2015, we originally went with Heidelberg because of their level of support and service. Once we got the experience with Heidelberg, it went so smoothly, that we never looked at other machines.”

Installed in October 2020, the Versafire EP is a big upgrade in speed, substrate range, and inline colour and registration technology over CEC’s older machine. “Not only can the machine run at 115 pages per minute, but the extended stock range of the Versafire gives us a big boost in the products we can offer our customers,” said production manager Mike Hughes. Suitable for both the short-run label and packaging markets, the Versafire is capable of printing on up to 24 pt. board, including preconverted material, and various types of synthetics – none of which were possible on the company’s older Versafire.

While the enhanced substrate range was a key factor in CEC’s decision to upgrade, the company also cites the Versafire’s other improved inline technology as determining investment factors. With exceptional front-to-back registration on duplexed jobs and high-precision inline registration, which actively controls every sheet so that it is steered and adjusted through the machine automatically, CEC can be assured of greater sheet-to-sheet consistency within jobs – imperative in the label and packaging markets, where jobs are often viewed side-by-side. Additionally, the Versafire EP is equipped with an inline sensor that automatically colour calibrates the engine, which also aids in in more uniform print results.

CEC is not only setting its sights on the label and packaging markets, however; the company is also hoping to expand by offering short run books for its clients. Equipped with a Plockmatic saddle-stitcher, CEC is capable of printing and finishing books all inline on the Versafire EP. “This machine is opening the doors for us to be competitive in the areas where we see big growth potential,” said Chokshi. “Now equipped with these enhanced capabilities, we can really go after a new customer base. Six to twelve months down the road, I see our business shifting from the traditional commercial work we do now and focusing on packaging, label, and book printing. The Versafire will help us achieve these goals.”

About CEC Print Solutions

For the last 40+ years, CEC Print Solutions has been providing products, solutions and technology to extend the marketing reach of its customers. Starting exclusively as an envelope converter and printer, today the company offers unified marketing communication solutions integrating print and electronic media channels – giving its customers the ability to create results driven marketing campaigns. A certified Green Business, CEC Print Solutions takes pride in contributing to its community and offers several environmentally responsible products that not only reduce the carbon footprint but also lower procurement costs. Its Union City production facility is equipped with the latest in print technology to meet all of its clients’ print marketing needs – helping them eliminate print procurement costs and improve their ROI.

Judges worked through an impressive number of submissions from leading industry companies to identify 13 outstanding recipients worthy of the Pinnacle InterTech Award.

Pinnacle InterTech Awards
The Pinnacle InterTech Awards exemplify new technology that is deemed by veteran industry judges to be truly innovative and likely to have a significant impact on printing and graphics companies. The 13 technologies selected to receive a 2021 Pinnacle InterTech Award are as follows (listed alphabetically by company, with the technology named first):

Canon Arizona FLOW Technology – Canon Solutions America
Canon UVgel 460 Inks – Canon Solutions America
CWT 1737 Evolution Max – Cutworx USA
Durst P5 TEX iSUB – Durst North America
Kodak Sonora Xtra Process Free Plates – Eastman Kodak Company
Direct – Global Graphics Software
Hycolor Pro – Heidelberg USA
PAT – Performance Advisor Technology – Heidelberg USA
Push to Stop in Folding – Heidelberg USA
HP PageWide C500 Top Feeder – HP Inc.
TagBot – Livingston Systems
Aerocut X Pro – MBM Corporation
PureFlexo Printing Technology – Miraclon

“The Pinnacle InterTech Awards program celebrates the inventiveness of suppliers and recognizes technology advancing our industry,” says Jim Workman, VP of research and technology, Printing United Alliance. “The judges had the tough task of singling out breakthrough innovations from many excellent entries.”

For more information about the Printing United Alliance Pinnacle Awards and how to participate in the next program, visit pinnacleawards.printing.org.

Started in 1989, Accent Impression, a family-owned and operated business, has focused on the commercial segment for most of its 30 years of operation. Equipped with a Speedmaster XL 106 that it installed in 2015, the company already had the capability to print on board stock but lacked the automated finishing equipment needed for efficient folding carton production.

“We always wanted to move into packaging and had our eye on the Easymatrix for many years,” said Adam Zara, vice-president of operations, “but we kept postponing investments due to other business priorities.”

After seeing the demand and need for packaging during COVID-19, the company knew it was time to accelerate its decision.

Installed in March 2021, the Easymatrix, which runs at speeds of up to 7,700 sheets per hour, is the company’s first full-size 41-in. die cutter.

“The arrival of the Easymatrix gave our existing clientele the confidence to send us the packaging work they were previously sending to other vendors,” saidAnthony Zara, vice-president of marketing and sales. “Through efforts to enhance our sales force and product development team, we’ve also been able to attract many new customers.”

Kawahara Packaging, based in Nagoya, Japan, created the TXR series of offline blanking units in 1992. For the last 30 years, folding carton and in-mold label (IML) manufacturers around the world have installed the TXR-1100 to boost converting productivity.

The new agreement enables ANC Machinery to leverage Heidelberg’s expertise and sales and service coverage in the folding carton and IML markets.

According to Gary Compton, sales director for ANC Machinery, “We’re excited to partner with Heidelberg – their knowledge and strong relationships within our strategic industry segments will be invaluable as we seek to grow our market share in North America.”

For Heidelberg, in today’s market where increasing levels of automation are in constant demand, the Kawahara blanking equipment will help bring increased efficiency to its Easymatrix and Promatrix die cutter customers.

“We look forward to working together with our customers to see how the addition of Kawahara products can help them achieve new levels of productivity,” said Felix Mueller, president of Heidelberg North America.

Two years ago, STG installed the Versafire EP from Heidelberg as a cost-effective alternative to its original digital print engine. Recently, while navigating the various staffing issues that COVID-19 has brought upon the print industry, STG has relied on the Versafire EP to maintain quality and affordability for its customers.

As a trade printer, STG runs a variety of materials that other printers are not able to produce themselves. With the expanded stock range of the Versafire EP, STG can run stocks as thin as 35 lb. text up to thicker 24 pt. in addition to a variety of synthetics, which is crucial to the signage business.

“This machine runs a similar range of materials as our previous machine,” said owner John Ioannides, “but the Versafire is just easier and cleaner to run.” With many employees working remotely due to the pandemic and now with companies struggling to find employees to work, STG has trusted the Versafire EP to produce jobs efficiently and effectively. According to Ioannides, “I can have an employee set up a job from home, and then someone in the office does a quick colour and registration check. The machine is so consistent; I don’t need someone there while a job is running. It’s great!”

Ultimately selecting Heidelberg as its strategic partner for the future, the company recently installed a Speedmaster XL 75-5+L with Anicolour technology and two Speedmaster XL 106-8Ps with push-to-stop technology – all controlled by a dynamic Prinect workflow solution.

To keep up with its demanding workload, the Clarksville, Tenn. printer crews its 560,000 square foot plant 24/7 with a team of 800 employees during peak seasons. “The yearbook business is all about getting in and out of make-readies as quickly as possible and producing a huge number of jobs every day,” saidPaul Dowden, vice-president of global operations, . “We need technology flexible enough for easy make-readies, but well-built for high volumes.”

For Jostens, production is broken into two different peak seasons: October–March for producing its award-winning covers and February–May for running the books’ text or inside contents. Needing a more efficient solution for its cover production, Jostens turned to the Speedmaster XL 75 with Anicolour inking technology, which it installed in early 2020. “We were running covers on our older presses, but we really needed a dedicated press that could get up to colour faster and consistently hit colour within 30 makeready sheets,” said Jeff Phelps, press process engineer. The Speedmaster XL 75-5+L Anicolour, which runs at speeds of 15,000 sheets per hour, has a fast inking unit that is designed to print offset quality at peak productivity for short runs.

The next component of Jostens’s strategy was more efficient production for its books’ interior content pages, which it was running on older presses. In early 2021, Jostens installed two Speedmaster XL 106-8P presses equipped with the new Heidelberg User Experience (UX) and Heidelberg’s push-to-stop autonomous manufacturing approach – driven by Intellistart 3, an integrated software, and artificial intelligence.

“With our previous presses, we could get 130–150 jobs completed in 12 hours. With the XL 106, our original goal was 180, but we’re achieving 220 make-readies in a single shift,” said Wayne Davidson, yearbook manufacturing manager.

{Image includes left to right: Paul Dowden, Vice President of Global Operations, Jostens; Rob Robinson, Account Manager, Heidelberg; Wayne Davidson (rear), Yearbook Manufacturing Manager, Jostens; Jim Self (front), Senior Director of Grad Products, Jostens; Jeff Phelps, Press Process Engineer, Jostens}

The new XL 106 replaces an aging machine in the company’s Clifton facility. It will be the “flagship” press for Sandy Alexander, who hopes to shift much of the offset work it produces for its high-end cosmetics, fashion, automotive, travel and entertainment and restaurant clientele onto the machine.

The new investment, which also includes installing Prinect Production Manager, is the first step that Sandy Alexander is taking to achieve a complete closed loop JDF workflow from prepress to bindery. With full automation from prepress to press, Sandy Alexander is anticipating increasing its overall capacity and throughput.

“As with all of our investments, our goal is to enhance our customer experience. By better automating our processes, our team will be able to better focus on productivity and eliminating unnecessary waste and downtime. Through these efforts, we can make print more cost effective for our customers,” said Mike Graff, CEO and president of Sandy Alexander.

With the new Speedmaster CX 104, Heidelberg is looking to meet the growing demand for flexible printing systems with a variety of automation solutions and variants in the commercial sector. The new 104 sheet format press offers commercial, packaging and label printing customers access to cutting-edge sheetfed offset technology from Heidelberg.

“Heidelberg is investing in the industry’s future. With the new, intelligent Speedmaster CX 104, we’re making our customers and Heidelberg itself far more competitive,” says CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer. “We’ve developed the press for a broad cross-section of customers and a wide range of applications to target the vast market potential. With our new universal press in the 70 x 100 format, Heidelberg is making state-of-the-art sheetfed offset technology available to a large number of print shops worldwide.”