Heidelberg, together with Müller Martini and Polar, demonstrated a range of finishing solutions for print shops and bookbinders at the Hunkeler Innovationdays. The Heidelberg Stahlfolder was incorporated in several finishing lines at the show including the live demonstration of quick changeovers with signatures being fed inline to the Digital Presto II saddle stitcher from Müller Martini. On display at the Müller Martini stand were the integrated Heidelberg Stahlfolder TH 56 buckle plate folder, the Polar D56 programmable guillotine with an extremely compact footprint and the Polar BC330 3-side trimmer.
The Stahlfolder TH 56 can be used separately as a standalone folding machine and can be quickly and seamlessly integrated into inlineproduction solutions with the saddlestitcher, increasing flexibility, utilization and guaranteeing a good return on investment. Polar also showed an interesting and highly compact version of its Digicut laser cutting machine for the precise cutting of complex shapes and outlines from digitally printed single sheets.
In addition, there was a joint presentation of the Müller Martini Connex data management system and Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow showing the benefits of both inline integration and automation pointing to Heidelberg’s concept of the ‘Smart Print Shop.’ While Heidelberg does not yet have a high-speed webfed inkjet solution except its Gallus Labelfire UV inkjet press, there was a technology demonstration of a webfed solution at the Fujifilm stand at Hunkeler showing the same Samba inkjet heads that Heidelberg uses in the Labelfire press as well as in its B1 sheetfed Primefire inkjet press.
