First Order In World For 10-Colour Perfector Press

On the day Komori launched the Lithrone S29 series of B2 sheet-fed offset presses at Ipex, UK firm FM Print became the first company in the world to order a 10-colour Lithrone S29 long perfector.

On the day Komori launched the Lithrone S29 series of B2 sheet-fed offset presses at Ipex, UK firm FM Print became the first company in the world to order a 10-colour Lithrone S29 long perfector.

Joining existing five-colour and six-colour Komori Lithrone B2 presses, the new Lithrone 1020P press will be installed in May and networked to receive CIP3 data direct from FM Print's pre-press department to ensure ink profiles are automatically set for each job.

Featuring a fully automatic plate changing system and achieving 16,000 sheets per hour (sph) production speed in a matter of seconds, the press can handle a variety of stocks, including cover board.

Komori said that the ecology features of the Lithrone 1029P are also very important to FM Print, which has a commitment to the environment.

The company was one of the first in the UK to achieve ISO 14001 environmental management system accreditation that reduces waste and effluent, emissions.

In addition, the company's ISO 9001 quality management system allows it to control and minimise paper usage.

Tony Falder, sales director of FM Print, said: "Printers have to keep step with the latest technical advancements or fall by the wayside.

Three years ago we advanced our pre-press facilities with CTP generating crisp B2 plates at speed.

Our decision to purchase Komori's impressive 10-colour perfector press leads on from that investment." He added: "High accuracy and high productivity are the key features of this press.

With it we can not only provide a very competitive B2 service we can now capture traditional five-colour B1 jobs, such as leaflets and small pagination brochures." FM Print is a B2 specialist producing a range of material for business, government, charities and financial companies in run lengths that can range from 1,000 to two million.

Falder explained: "It's a market characterised by increasingly shorter run lengths.

We have to increase our volume to reduce our prices, which makes a highly-automated perfecting press the best choice for us.

Our focus is on accuracy and ultra-fast make-ready and, with only seven minutes job-to-job change-over, the Komori Lithrone S1029P gives outstanding performance and will increase our capacity no end." He said that the 'one-pass' press is suitable for small runs and because of the new machine, he believed FM Print could almost challenge digital printing.

Komori UK managing director Neil Sutton said: "There is tremendous interest in the new Lithrone S29 series and the 10-colour perfector model brings outstanding levels of automation and productivity to the B2 market.".

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