Installations News
Cober to install new Speedmaster XL 106 from Heidelberg

With a steadfast commitment to efficiency, customer centricity, and continuous investment in the latest technology, Cober, headquartered in Kitchener, Ont., continues to grow and advance as a premier commercial and third-party printer in Canada. The 106-year-old family-owned commercial printer will be installing a new Speedmaster XL 106-8P from Heidelberg with the first plate-to-unit device in North America. The new press together with the fully automatic printing plate logistics system will decrease makeready times and waste and eliminate bottlenecks throughout production.

Cober, with three locations throughout Canada, is experiencing growth in both its enterprise B2B and on-demand sales channels. Having made recent investments, the company was well positioned to keep up its increasing demands from a digital print perspective but felt it needed to improve its capacity for medium to long runs.

“The investment in the new Speedmaster with plate-to-unit,” said president Todd Cober, “will fill this gap perfectly and provides a seamless transition for our customers in terms of quality, speed, and price. The LED technology is great for our on-demand business. We’ll be able to get jobs to customers faster because we can finish the sheets right away and not have to worry about marking or drying time.”

The XL 106, which is set to be installed in late spring, will replace the company’s current 12-year-old press. Cober anticipates the new press will immediately add 30 per cent more capacity to the shop, which is needed to fulfil new business coming in, plus provide an additional 30 per cent capacity for growth. The company also anticipates a decrease in its makeready paper waste, which will help its goals of being more sustainable. An added benefit of the advanced technology is its ease of use versus earlier offset technology. “Looking down the road, we believe it will be easier to on-board new press crew members when the need arises,” said Cober.

Cober is also excited to install the first plate-to-unit in production in North America.

“This new unit is going to allow us to achieve consistently high productivity regardless of run length,” said Cober. “We do a lot of short runs with high page counts that require a large amount of makereadies every day. Platemaking was becoming a bottleneck for us.”

Bottlenecks will be eliminated, thanks to the new and fully automatic printing plate logistics at the press. With plate-to-unit, ready to hang plates are provided and removed using a fully automated process. In addition to reducing the operator’s workload, the automation increases the reliability of plate changes and reduces the risk of scratches on the plate, which can cause paper waste.