The family-owned commercial printer will install the five-colour press later this year, replacing an A3 machine and ensuring Cornerstone no longer needs to send A1 work out to trade.
General manager Robbie Conomos said: “Our clients have been pushing us to do more A1 work for them. We’ve been outsourcing this work, but the increased volume has given us the opportunity to bring this service in house. With the CX 102 we will be able to tackle longer runs and take on catalogue work also.”
Cornerstone had been investigating A1 presses for some time and was motivated to invest due to the strength of the Australian dollar.
“When we signed the document, two days later the dollar had dropped 6-7c. That’s why we had to make a decision; we could see it was going to drop. Luckily we signed the document and Heidelberg was able to buy the currency before it dropped,” said Conomos.
“We’re hoping we have done it with perfect timing. We suspect the dollar will worsen, which will prevent others from investing, so hopefully that gives us a competitive edge over the next couple of years.”
[Related: how to speed up press makereadies]
However, he said the investment was no rush decision. “Small steps are the safest ones so we slowly built our way up to this over recent years.”
Choosing the German press maker was an easy decision though, added Conomos. “We are Heidelberg through and through, from print to bindery.”
The CX 102 was launched in 2010 and combines technology from the manufacturer’s CD 102 and XL 105 product lines.
The machine set to be installed at Cornerstone comes equipped with Access Control to measure ink densities, a new spray powder unit and an improved spray powder extraction unit.
The CX 102 runs at 16,500 sheets per hour, up from the 15,000sph speed of the CD 102, which when combined with the larger sheet size gives Cornerstone a significant bump in capacity.
[Review: Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102]
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