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PRODUCT PORTFOLIO POST-PRESS
Words Simon Creasey
When Lawrence Corria,
ME & MY...
Polar 92N Plus
Investing in a replacement high-speed cutter has exceeded all
expectations and has resulted in an increase in productivity
proprietor of Cardiffbased
Spectrum
Printing, invested in a
new Heidelberg
Speedmaster CX 75 B2
press in December 2017,
what he didn’t realise at
the time was he was creating a major problem
for himself – a good problem as it turns out.
The Speedmaster CX 75 was brought in to
replace two ageing Speedmasters, and Corria
anticipated an increase in productivity, but
he didn’t expect the volume of work the new
press was capable of churning out to be as high
as it was.
This significant uptick in productivity
resulted in a bottleneck in the lithographic
company’s post-press department, particularly
on its Polar guillotine, which the company
bought back in 2005, when Spectrum was
more focused on B1 work.
“It was getting on a bit and it was overkill
having a larger machine,” says Corria. “There
were always jobs waiting to go on the guillotine
so we wanted something a little bit more
up-to-date and faster to increase productivity.
We just wanted to modernise and speed things
up in the post-press department so that we
could keep up with the new press.”
It runs at a cutting speed of 45 cycles a
minute. The blade comes down a lot faster and
you’re turning work around quicker” Lawrence Corria
Having made the decision to invest in a new
guillotine, there was only ever going to be one
company that Spectrum turned to. “We were
always going to get a Polar because of the reliability
of our last one,” says Corria. “We had it
for nearly 15 years and it had served us so well
and was still in a fairly good condition. We had
very few problems with it over the years. As a
result, we were never going to go off to look at
another brand after having something so good,
which is how we feel about Heidelberg as a
company.”
As well as not needing to scour the market to
look at alternative machines, Corria didn’t
even feel the need to test the new Heidelberg
supplied Polar 92N Plus guillotine that he took
delivery of in September last year after trading
in the old model.
Printweek April & May 2020
“We put our total trust in the brand,” he says.
“We were so happy with the last one and I
hadn’t heard anything negative over the past
few years about the guillotines, so I didn’t see
the need to test it.”
Installation of the new machine ran
smoothly. “They got our old one out and the
new one in in about two days, so it was very
quick,” says Corria. The switch also saved the
company valuable space. “It’s actually a smaller
unit than the old guillotine because we were
predominately a B1 printer at one time.”
Corria says a team of three operators were
trained up on the Polar 92N Plus in a day and
after that the machine was up and running
and matching the work produced by the
Speedmaster CX 75.
The 920mm-wide machine runs at a top
cutting speed of 45 cycles per minute. It can be
used for cutting semi-finished and finished
half-size products made of paper, card stock,
paperboard, plastic foils, etc, and has a number
of programmable additional functions to
improve productivity. The OptiKnife knife
changing system is swift and easy to use and
Polar claims the machine can increase productivity
by up to 20%. But don’t just take the
manufacturer’s word for it. Corria says the
machine has exceeded expectations since it
was installed.
“There is more automation, a faster knife
change and they’ve added a few extra functions
compared with the old machine,” he says.
“However, the big thing is it runs at a cutting
speed of 45 cycles a minute. The blade comes
down a lot faster on the new one and you’re
turning work around quicker. Even the finishers
are saying they are getting through jobs a
lot faster with the new guillotine.”
Corria adds that the machine has been a
“great addition to the business at the right
time” and the company hasn’t encountered a
single issue with the Polar 92N Plus since it
was installed.
“We haven’t had any breakdowns whatsoever
and the machine looks after itself,” he
says. “We’ve got a long history with Polar/
Heidelberg and they’re always very quick to
CORRIA
“I would definitely recommend it to other
people. It really is a great product”