Heidelberg has signed a licensing deal for Landa’s new Nanography process and said it will ‘develop, manufacture, sell and service a new generation of digital printing presses,’ based on the process. The first appearance of such presses is probably at least a couple of years away.

Heidelberg is already a partner with Ricoh to sell the current Pro C901 and C751 sheet fed toner presses. Since the deal was announced a year ago, some 100 of the Ricoh models have been sold by Heidelberg worldwide. The presses are now integrated into Heidelberg’s Prinect factory-wide network system (it calls this an operating system) and are incorporated into the Heibelberg range as the Linoprint C series.

According to chairman Bernhard Schreier: ‘The fact is, our customers need both offset and digital. In addition to our Linoprint C and Linoprint L offering, we will be able to complete our solutions to address our customer demands with Landa Nanography. The Landa Nanographic Printing process will enable us to offer digital versatility with the strength of offset for which Heidelberg is renowned.’

The Linoprint C models are being demonstrated on the large Heidelberg stand at drupa, which as usual occupies the whole of Hall 1. There is no Landa presence on the Heidelberg stand.

New at drupa is Linoprint L, a narrow format inkjet web for UV cured printing on labels and flexible packaging materials. This is based on the press developed by CSAT, which Heidelberg acquired last year.

Also new is the Speedmaster XL106 offset press, featuring inkjet integration as standard. This doesn’t mean that all presses will be delivered with inkjets, but that any press is in effect inkjet ready as standard and able to run inline personalisation if the customer orders it that way.

Up to 12 inkjet ‘continuous’ print heads can be fitted to the coating unit. Simultaneous coating and imprinting can be applied. There will be a choice of water based inks for paper, or solvent for non-absorbent substrates.

Contact: www.heidelberg.co.uk