Heidelberg Relaunches Web Training Center

DOVER, NH—Heidelberg Web Systems recently completed a $5 million modernization of its Customer Training and Technology Center, located here.

Begun last November, the new training center now includes a static lab for hands-on training on freestanding printing units; a folder lab equipped with three fully operational folders and a Contiweb splicer; and, most notably, a new wing with a fully operational printing tower from a Heidelberg Mainstream newspaper web press.

Additional teaching assets include an XCalibur VLF thermal platesetter consigned by Agfa; and related equipment and materials from Agfa, QTI, Baldwin, Böttcher, Sun Chemical, AWS, Rima and Heidelberg postpress.

As a result of the expansion, the training center will also have more classroom space with presentation capabilities and more personnel, reveals Gary Fisher, director of training and lithographic services. The expanded learning environment comprises 21,000 square feet of classroom, plant and laboratory space. The center now boasts a teaching staff of seven full-time instructors who share an average of 20 years of industry experience.

However, the true core of the center's training capability is its array of demonstration equipment.

The main workshop contains static examples of every printing unit manufactured by Heidelberg Web Systems, and it is on these mechanical subsystems that students master the intricacies of maintaining the press as a whole.

The static printing units are complemented by a folder lab housing a Contiweb CS splicer running white paper through folders and turn bars to demonstrate folding options and performance.

In June, Heidelberg announced the center's most significant enhancement to date: the dedication of a 5,300-square-foot area to what is said to be North America's only fully operational, double-width newspaper press tower for operator, mechanical and electrical training. Configured with a JF-255 folder and Contiweb FD flying paster, the working Mainstream tower can produce eight-page broadsheet or 16-page tabloid sections in full color.