Sheetfed Solutions

Pressing into the future

"At some point in time, even on the bigger packaging presses, we will see direct on-press imaging," predicts McKinney. "It will take another bite out of the make-ready process." There are some smaller solutions already available. Heidelberg's Speedmaster 74 DI exposes plates directly on the press and can do runs of 500 cost-efficiently, says Schmidt. It boasts six-minute makeready, but the downfall of "digital" units for the packaging industry, he points out, is that there are no diecutting or coating units available. These are some areas suppliers may address in the future.