3 July 2015

Stephens & George invests in further machinery

Stephens & George has opted for a fifth 18,000sph Speedmaster XL 106-10-P to replace its last XL 105.

The machine, which will be installed next month, follows on from the eight-colour XL 106, which featured inline sheeter CutStar, delivered earlier this year.

Managing director Andrew Jones said: "This press will feature CutStar 106, Inpress Control and Autoplate XL. They are vital tools for us. The market remains competitive but the largest and most efficient companies are the ones which will thrive,

The company reported a 22% rise in productivity after installing its first 18,000sph Speedmaster XL 106-8-P, compared to the 15,000sph XL 105 it replaced. Jones has said he would never buy a press again without Inpress Control inline colour and register control and Autoplate XL automated plate changing.

"We are a company that can produce a range of work in volume come and with high productivity but without any compromise to quality. We work to ISO 12647-2 colour quality standards to ensure we retain consistency," he said.

The 103-year-old £25m company currently sees 40% of its sales come through magazine printing, 40% from commercial contract work and 20% from one-off jobs.

The new machine will be the first Stephens & George press with Inpress Control 2 second-generation inline spectral measurement, which can measure metallics and opaque white for the first time and is supplied with a new handheld spectrophotometer with online calibration via Net Profiler which means there is no need to send the device away for calibration.

It gives automatic measurement on the run for register and dot gain which is useful for ISO 12647-2 production. Waste sheets cut by an additional 10%-20%, according to Heidelberg