On 12th November, 70 print experts from across the globe experienced the thrill of high speed performance both inside and outside the print room at the action-packed COLORMAN e:line technology forum in Kempten,organized by manroland web systems. The guests from various reputed printing houses engaged in a memorable race experience with ABT Sportsline, and then witnessed the unmatched high performance of the new COLORMAN e:line at the Allg?uer Zeitungsverlag.

“We want to bring you face-to-face with technology in Kempten. Tonight you will experience the COLORMAN e:line at the Allg?uer Zeitung, but to set the mood please enjoy plenty of horsepower at the ADAC training ground.” Eckhard  Hoerner-Marass, Managing Director, manroland web systems greeted around 70 guests, including customers from large European printing houses at the facilities of car tuning specialists ABT Sportsline. After these introductory words, the guests moved onto the high octane racing circuit to experience the thrill of high speed racing in high-horsepower KTM X-Bow racing cars. At the end of the day, the racing winners were announced and felicitated by manroland web systems.

High automation equals high performance

However, the high speed performance winner of the night was undoubtedly the COLORMAN e:line. With a maximum speed of 50,000 revolutions (Kempten l?uft nur 45.000, soviel ich wei? – wenn wir mehr behaupten, kann es ?rger geben) per hour and honored with the 2013 Red Dot Award for excellent product design, the COLORMAN e:line sets new standards in high speed and quality printing. The fastest press in the world is now available in two variants: the COLORMAN e:line 45 for medium-sized print runs and the COLORMAN e:line 50 for high speed and advanced automation print requirements. Markus Brehm, Managing Director of Allg?uer Zeitungsverlag, welcomed the guests to the printing house in a traditional Allg?u style and followed by Wilfried Sutter, Technical Director, who explained the reasons behind the printing house’s decision for shifting from the previously installed old KBA presses to the new investment in the COLORMAN e:line. Their clear needs were economical production, short makeready times, high printing speeds, and a high degree of automation, all being absolutely critical for the strategy of the company. Reducing makeready times is particularly important to the Allg?uer Zeitungsverlag. “After all, we must deliver the eight regional editions to five post offices first thing in the morning,” reported Sutter. That means that the production must be finished by 1.30 a.m. How does that work in practice? The Allg?uer Zeitungsverlag demonstrated live the high performance of the press to the guests without any reservations. The guests were allowed complete access to the entire COLORMAN e:line system and examined the technology in detail. What was especially interesting? “In particular, I was impressed by the highly efficient APL robots from manroland web systems,” explained a customer from Bavaria. He was not alone there; the APL – robotic plate changing feature was particularly well received. Later in the night, the customers tracked exactly the short make ready time on the COLORMAN e:line for each of the eight regional editions of the Allg?uer Zeitung. Makeready times have been reduced to approximately 3 minutes per regional edition. For this same task, the previous KBA press needed 20 minutes to half an hour.

Four cornerstones of success