Taylor Corp. Becomes First U.S. Heidelberg Anicolor Adopter

KENNESAW, GA—August 30, 2007—Taylor Corporation of North Mankato, MN has become the first U.S. printer to incorporate Heidelberg’s innovative Anicolor technology into its pressroom. The print division was so impressed with this zoneless short inking unit with dampening system that it has installed several Speedmaster SM 52 presses with Anicolor.

“Anicolor does everything Heidelberg said it would do,” raves Craig Krone, Taylor Corporation’s vice president of Information and Technologies for Personalized Business Products. “The 20th sheet off the press is consistent with the last one of the run.”

Anicolor is the world’s first zoneless short inking unit with dampening system available on Heidelberg’s Speedmaster SM 52 line of presses. Recently recognized by PIA/GATF with a 2007 InterTech Technology Award, Anicolor’s consistent ink coverage results in faster makeready times and less waste.

Predominantly a short-run printer with runs of less than 1,000 sheets, Taylor Corporation’s makeready times have gone from 15 minutes down to just seven or eight minutes. The Anicolor presses are typically up to color in 20 – 25 sheets. For a print operation that does several make-readies per hour on each press, that time reduction makes a significant difference in productivity.

“The biggest advantage of Anicolor over traditional presses is color consistency,” says Krone. “When our press operators are at approved color, they don’t even read the color density bars anymore – except in the beginning – because the ink coverage is so consistent. As a result, the operators are more productive.”

Krone says longer runs are where his company saves the most money. Because the color is so consistent, operators aren’t fighting color spikes that usually occur in ink density during the run on their existing presses – in this case competitive press models. He says Anicolor produces nearly flat-line density consistency through the production run.