Montserrat Piedro-Insa introduced the new model at Heidelberg’s headquarters
Heidelberg has introduced the Versafire EV, a cut-sheet toner digital press that supports a range of production options including five colours, with a white-first option, and long banner printing, all integrated with the company’s Prinect workflow.
Based on the Ricoh Pro C7200X launched in March, Heidelberg’s new machine replaces the existing Versafire CV model and comes with the company’s own DFE plus tight integration with the Prinect workflow and other support built on Heidelberg’s graphic arts experience.
The SRA3 press supports five colours, with white, clear, “neon” yellow or pink or “invisible red” for security applications. Switching the position of the black and white toners in order to lay white down first can be accomplished in 10 minutes, allowing a number of creative effects to be achieved on coloured, clear or metallised substrates; many examples were presented at a site visit to beta test user commercial and mailing printer JD Druck in Lauterbach. An increase in imaging resolution to 2400 x 4800dpi should bring improved definition to fine line art and small serif type.
Available in 85 and 95ppm versions, the Versafire EV can also handle thicker media up to 360gsm, and supports banner printing up to 1260mm (simplex, 700mm duplex). This makes it possible to produce high quality small cartons with spot varnish effects, either for short-run customised or fully personalised production, or as prototypes for production on analogue equipment, with colour matching controlled by Heidelberg’s Prinect workflow.
Introducing the press at a launch event at the company’s eponymous headquarters in Germany, head of digital print business Montserrat Peidro-Insa explained that it was ‘a piece of a bigger puzzle’ designed to enable productivity by working ‘to graphic arts standards’. This claim supported by the unit’s built-in CCD arrays that enable calibration for stability and repeatability in colour accuracy and front-to-back registration ‘job after job, day after day’.
Anthony Thirlby, head of customer segment commercial printing, added that Prinect and the various presses, offset and digital, form a production ecosystem that is adaptable, scalable and flexible. The workflow software is now being offered on a monthly fee basis, with a usage charge and additional features able to be unlocked immediately as required. Pricing starts at around €200 per month.
The integration theme was echoed by Andreas Forer, general manager digital commercial, who stressed Heidelberg’s depth of application knowledge, some of which is encapsulated in the Media Manager tool, a software library of machine settings for different substrates and applications that can be shared with Versafire users to make ‘wonderful things possible’. Customer who opt for suitable training can create these profiles themselves.
The Versafire EV is available immediately.
