Belgian premium print shop Buroform invests in Speedmaster CX 104 from Heidelberg

• Massive increase in net productivity
• Speedmaster CX 104 replaces two medium-format presses
• Highly automated workflow control with Prinect

Belgian print shop Buroform was founded in 1982 and is based in Mechelen. In recent years, co-owner Jesse Marynen has turned the company, which currently has 40 employees, into a supplier of premium print products. In addition to customers from Belgium’s fine dining and cultural scenes, Buroform works for international businesses in sectors such as the automotive and gaming industries. Publishers also have their art books printed there.

The print shop also has its own web platform called designcards.be to market its gift, birthday, and wedding cards. The BAAS (Buroform as a Service) platform enables customers to edit standard print products in a private online shop and place print orders. A third platform will be going live next September. Ensuring the company keeps moving forward is very important to Marynen. “I’m always looking to initiate new projects and develop new products,” he says. Buroform uses Prinect Production Manager from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) for its highly automated production workflow.

Pressroom revamped

At the end of 2020, to further boost net productivity, Buroform replaced two older medium-format presses and invested in the new Speedmaster CX 104 from Heidelberg as one of its pilot users. This four-color press in the 70 x 100 format is equipped with Push to Stop technology for autonomous printing and an LE UV drying system. It has provided Marynen with exactly the right solution to produce Buroform’s wide-ranging, high-quality job spectrum with exceptional flexibility and cost-efficiency.

Massive increase in net productivity

“Thanks to the new Speedmaster CX 104, we’ve significantly increased our net productivity,” confirms Marynen. “On average, we’re producing our print jobs 20 percent faster than before and completing up to five job changes in the space of an hour,” he adds. This enabled Marynen and his team of print engineers to change 184 plates in a single shift – a new in-house record.

Overall, the Speedmaster CX 104 has more than halved the time Buroform requires to set up a job compared with the presses previously used. The print shop achieves an average production speed of around 14,500 sheets per hour, which is close to 90 percent of the maximum speed possible. “Fast setup and a high production speed make the Speedmaster CX 104 the perfect press for short and long runs alike. We have print runs ranging from 300 all the way up to 100,000 sheets,” continues Marynen. What the printers at Buroform appreciate most is how easy it is to operate the press using the Prinect Press Center XL 3 and the fact that intelligent assistance systems take care of routine tasks for them. Thanks to stored air settings, the Preset Plus feeder and delivery quickly adjust to all kinds of substrates. Air-cushioned sheet transport in the delivery means even very thin printing materials are deposited cleanly on the pile. With up to 50 items listed in the job queue, the Intellistart 3 assistance software makes intelligent decisions about which makeready sequences are needed during a job change and provides operators with the best possible support.

LE UV drying speeds up job processing as a whole

With the new Speedmaster CX 104, Buroform is also benefiting from LE UV technology from Heidelberg. For example, it has been able to speed up job processing all the way through to the finished product and improve process reliability at the postpress stage. Thanks to LE UV, even the uncoated papers many customers are requesting are ready for postpress as soon as they leave the press.

According to Marynen, the switchover from a printing process with conventional inks to LE UV went very smoothly due to three factors – outstanding instruction and training from Heidelberg Benelux, Buroform’s highly qualified staff, and the use of appropriate consumables from the Saphira portfolio.

Florian Franken, Head of Product Management Speedmaster CX 104 at Heidelberg, provides further details: “The Speedmaster CX 104 at Buroform went into operation back in late January 2021 and demonstrated its capabilities during the pilot phase, even before series production started. Heidelberg has seen a significant increase in the net productivity of all users.”