7th April 2006: On the day Komori launched the Lithrone S29 series of B2 sheet-fed offset presses at IPEX,UK firm FM Print became the first company in the world to order a 10-colour Lithrone S29 long perfector.


"Printers have to keep step with the latest technical advancements or fall by the wayside,"says Tony Falder, Sales Director of FM Print. "Three years ago we advanced our prepress facilities with CTP generating crisp B2 plates at speed.Our decision to purchase Komori's impressive 10-colour perfector press leads on from that investment. High accuracy and high productivity are the key features of this press. With it we can not only provide a very competitive B2 service we can now capture traditional 5-colour B1 market jobs such as leaflets and small pagination brochures."


FM Print is a B2 specialist producing a range of material for business, government, charities and financial companies in run lengths that can range from 1000 to 2 million. It's a market characterized by increasingly shorter run lengths, "explains Tony. "We have to increase our volume to reduce our prices which makes a highly-automated perfecting press the best choice of us. Our focus is on accuracy and ultra-fast make-ready and,with only 7 minutes job-to-job changeover,the Komori Lithrone S1029P gives outstanding performance and will increase our capacity no end ,"continues Tony."This 'one-pass' press is very suited to small runs.In fact we can almost challenge digital printing!"


Joining existing five-colour and six colour Komori Lithrone B2 presses, the new Lithrone 1029P new press will be installed in May and networked to receive CIP3 data direct from FM Print's prepress department to ensure ink profiles are automatically set for each job.
Featuring a fully automatic plate changing system and achieving 16,000 sph production speed in a matter of seconds, the press can handle a variety of stocks, including comer board.


The ecology features of the Lithrone 1029P are also very important to FM Print who have a strong commitment to the environment. The company was one of the first in the UK to achieve ISO14001 Environmental Management System accreditation that reduces waste,effluent, emissions, and its ISO9001 Quality Management system allows them to control and minimize paper usage.


"There is tremendous interest in the new LithroneS29 series and the 10-colour perfector model brings outstanding levels of automation and productivity to the B2 market," says Komori UK MD Neil Sutton."It will have a huge impact on the B2 print market."