Image Centre updates to Komori Lithrone

Auckland-based Image Centre has brought smiles to the faces of Ferrostaal staff, purchasing the ninth new Komori in Australasia in 18 months.

The Komori GL840-P press will head to the Queen city Auckland soon, bringing one of the country’s biggest printers up to date with the newest technology. Image Centre, bought the Green Lithrone 840-P eight-colour press to update its sheetfed equipment and make redundant a Heidelberg Speedmaster 102, a Roland 700 five colour.

David Atkins, managing director at Image Centre, says the Komori press ticked all the boxes after an extensive review and the company chose it after a very close race against a similar European-made machine. He says, “Komori is more of a challenger brand that was simply able to cut a sharper deal. I am very comfortable with their new technology and they have been a good bunch of people to work with so far.”

Rayne Simpson, Australia New Zealand general manager of Komori distributor Ferrostaal, says a recent installation of the GL840-P produced 30 jobs of 260 runs in four hours at 35 sheets make ready. He says, “It’s bridging the gap between offset and digital for short run.”

Atkins says the GL840-P’s makeready speed stands out as a big factor that will help his business compete in a market of smaller print volumes. He says, “Makeready on our old kit was killing us.all most as much as some of the unsustainable pricing we see in the market. It’s not so much a printing game anymore as a make ready game: the runs are getting shorter.”

He says the company desperately need the press upgrade as its presses had grown too old but now its offset plant aligns with other parts of the business that have had more recent investment. He says, “It’s now up to market and provides consistency, reliability and high-quality colour.”

Image Centre will use the press to produce a range of commercial print products.

Simpson says there is a lot of worldwide interest in Komori’s Lithrone series because it has strength in the areas increasingly important to printers. He says, “It leads the world in HUV, green technology and make ready by a country mile through Komori innovation. This is the way commercial printing is going and offset still has a better colour quality than digital.”

He points out that says six of the nine presses installed in the past 18 months have the HUV capability a further two presses can have HUV added. He also revealed Komori’s IS29 A2 digital press will come to Australasia by the end of the year.

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