Quote:
Originally Posted by bnorth
Steve have you seen any of the newer Heidlelberg printing machines? I got to see a new multi million dollar model about 5-7 years ago and they do everything for you. No adjusting of anything, they even had an eye for the color.  |
I haven't seen any of the new stuff in person. I talked a bit with a guy in the stamp club who has worked from the era I was in briefly until very recently, and learned a bit about the new digital stuff that works directly from the computer files to a plate made on the press. Pretty impressive stuff.
I did see a Heidelberg-Harris 6 color press being built. They were testing out making a metric spec press here in the US. They were a very early adopter of what's called integrated supply - where the company has maybe 3-5 suppliers for everything and gets massive discounts based on volume. They were doing that when most everyone was doing "just in time delivery" for parts and supplies.
The company I was with was a distributor for a German hydraulic fitting company and I specialized in finding the less common stuff and identifying what customers wanted. HH came to me from the main office because their integrated supply partner for hydraulic stuff had to be told what page in what catalog a fitting was on even when given the part number
At the time I knew our brands part numbers without looking them up, and knew their suppliers brand fairly well. maybe 20% without looking in the book.
Over the course of a few months they bought what would turn out for some parts to be every piece available in the US aside from a few in stock at other distributors. One size of copper tube I had to get specially redrawn for them since the usual coils didn't work well with the compression fittings.
Got to see one of the two they made when I dropped some stuff off at the factory. Massive machine.
Steve B