We are excited to share the installation process for our newest Heidelberg press – a Heidelberg XL106 UV Press to be specific. We’ll be publishing more information in the coming weeks about what this press can do and when you can get your projects on it, but check back here for regular updates on progress of the installation.
Check out the whole six weeks condensed into one minute:
June 3
Day One – While the process of getting this press to our plant began long ago, the parts from Heidelberg began to arrive this morning.
June 4
Day Two – The remaining printing units arrived today.
June 5
Day Three – Here are the coater and mechanical/electrical cabinets waiting to be unloaded from our parking lot.
June 6
Day Four – Today we received the largest single piece of the XL press: the 22′ foot long delivery system.
Weighing 22,000 pounds, the workers from Heidelberg navigated the system up the centre aisle of our pressroom between our other, live presses.
Things got really interesting when it came time to turn the system 90 degrees to be in line with the printing units. The fantastic installers took their time and were very precise with this process. Here’s the process, sped up 400%:
June 9
Day Seven – The chiller arrived and was installed on the roof of Hemlock. Jeff, Hemlock’s Senior VP of Manufacturing and Operations, came by the office on the weekend to capture this video of it happening:
June 10
Day Eight – The start of week two! The big pieces have all arrived and now it’s just a matter of making all the right connections.
June 11
Day Nine – more cabinetry arrived today, as well as the display console, which is in the wooden box at the front of this photo.
I found this fascinating as well! Look at at the little pieces that are necessary for this HUGE machine:
That photo shows about one-third of the organization tray containing all the washers, screws and other little parts necessary for the XL106.
June 13
Day Eleven – the display console has been unpacked
June 17
Day Fifteen – Coming into the plant on this Monday morning, marking week three of the XL Installation, I was greeted by towers of these crates.
I checked with Jeff, our Senior VP of Manufacturing and Operations, to see what we received over the weekend. He confirmed that we have received 13 crates containing a variety of products from catwalks and railings to electrical, air and vacuum components, and that we are expecting five more crates to arrive shortly.
I used the panorama function on my camera for the first time today to try and capture the whole press!
July 5
Day Thirty-Three – it’s been a while since we’ve updated, but the installation is still progressing along. We’ll begin test printing next week, so nearly all of the pieces are in place.
As you can see, all of the cabinets have been installed, and our mechanical pipes have been connected.
July 15
Day Forty Three – That’s it! Installation is complete! We are currently working with Heidelberg for training and live jobs will begin on the press in the next few weeks.
There will still be more goodies coming your way to do with the XL106, but in the meantime, here are some photos of the completed installation – probably the last time the press will ever be this clean.
