appointments 
Sydney-based Pettaras Press has installed the first Komori LS640 press for the eastern seaboard, and only second to Perth’s Picton Press. This six-colour press runs at a top speed of 16,000 sph, and can print on substrates from onion skin up to 1000 um board. The press was unveiled last night at a joint event with Pettaras Press and press and consumables supplier CPI. The installation is such a big event for the growing printer that the Greek-flavoured celebrations will continue tonight, with big-name celebrity Effie making an appearance.

According to Steven Pettaras, Pettaras Press director, the installation of the press is the culmination of a process that began over a year and half ago, as the Pettaras family were very keen on ensuring that their final decision would be the best one for the company.

"Being a printer by trade, I really did my homework. The reason why we chose Komori is because I went to Japan and had a look at the factory, and they’ve made some improvements," says Pettaras.

"This machine is the new generation Komori, and the capability that this machine has just blew me away. What we saw with that machine far surpasses any other press we looked at, and when you put them all next to each other, the Komori just outshone them."

The LS640 also features what CPI believes to be the world’s fastest completely automatic plate changing system, changing six plates in under three minutes, a 50 per cent increase over other plate changing systems.

Advanced automatic make-ready functions allow operators to program current job make-ready, wash-up and subsequent make-readies from the press console, virtually eliminating downtime between jobs. It is these time-saving factors that really grabbed the attention of Pettaras Press.

"CPI installed the machine, and in less than a week it was running at 16,000 sph an hour. We run 24 hours a day, six days a week and we needed something high speed with high makeready," says Pettaras.

"The machine has densitometery on it, so what we’ve done is fingerprinted our equipment. We use CIP3 capabilities so we fly the work over to the press, so the makeready is within 10 minutes."