In March 2019, the Vassel printing works, located in Bron in the Rhône, renewed its entire digital machine park. In this company run by Philippe Malaval, two Heidelberg presses, a Versafire EV 85 and a Versafire EP 115, replaced four machines from another manufacturer.
The 5th colour of the Versafire EV 85 for a multitude of applications
The Heidelberg Versafire EV 85 is a digital toner press that prints up to 85 A4 pages per minute, and has the special feature of being equipped with a 5th colour. This additional channel allows the application of a covering white on dark paper before four-colour printing, a selective varnish, a fluorescent yellow, a fluorescent pink and an invisible red to secure documents.
"While some of these applications are already familiar to us, the invisible white and red open up new opportunities that we will exploit to the fullest to expand our offering." appreciates Yvan Rimet, Vassel's production manager.
Reliability and versatility with the Versafire EP 115 depending on the printer
The Versafire EP 115 produces 115 A4 pages per minute and can handle papers up to 450 g/m² 2 . The Rhodanian printing house opted for the Plockmatic booklet finisher which allows in-line finishing as well as a perforation device completed by the GBC module for special perforations (up to 9 different axes). This configuration allows to relieve the finishing workshop which has recently had to absorb a significant production surplus. And thanks to the handling of the high grammages of this press, the printing company is planning to expand its offer to include small packaging.
Yvan Rimet also points out: "The reliability of the EP is such that we can launch a night production without any problems. This machine alone accounts for three-quarters of the digital production".
The reactivity of Vassel bostée
With the replacement of the four old presses with these two Versafires, the printing company's production volume increased from 600,000 A4 pages to more than 1.2 million.
Vassel has also become more responsive.
The new Versafire presses save the printing company a step: "The resistance of the inks allowed us to eliminate the protective filming that we had to apply beforehand. "
And I since all maintenance is carried out by the manufacturer, machine availability has risen sharply and is now close to 90%, with a significantly lower overall service cost, details Yvan Rimet.
