Zeisler cites the ability to meet short turnaround times as the main competitive advantage the plant has over some of its competitors and ‘without this press and our other Heidelberg presses, we would never be able to meet this challenge.’ It’s an absolute gamechanger in our business.’ Inpress Control enables swift changeovers between label jobs, and according to Zeisler, ‘No other manufacturer comes close to the accuracy and speed of Inpress Control. In addition to the increased speeds of the press, which runs 24/7 at 18,000 sheets per hour, the XL 106 is equipped with technology such as CutStar, Heidelberg’s inline roll-to-sheet device, and Inpress Control, an inline spectrophotometer that measures and controls color and register at any speed. Without it, we would have never been able to keep up with the increased demand in our business during 2020,’ said Bob Zeisler, general manager of the Fort Worth plant. ‘When we installed our newest XL 106, it almost doubled the horsepower of the older press we replaced. The XL 106 at Fort Dearborn produced more than 2.5 times the number of annual gross impressions than the industry average of 32 million. Printing primarily cut and stack labels, the Fort Worth location of Fort Dearborn is equipped with two Speedmaster XL 105s and one other XL 106 in addition to its world-record press, which was installed in July of 2019. Fort Dearborn, a custom label and packaging company with twenty locations nationwide, reached nearly 82 million impressions on its Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106-8+L in 2020.

World impression