Prepress UK, which distributes prepress software and hardware, has released a new software tool, PressReporter, which is aimed at Heidelberg press users and promises to give an overview of those presses.
It works in conjunction with Heidelberg’s Press Center console, as well as any Heidelberg CP2000 that has the Management Gate option. Andrew Aldridge, technical manager for Prepress UK, explains: “Whilst newer Heidelberg presses do come with some basic reporting, it is usually limited to the last 100 jobs and only shows full details for jobs run in the past 30 days – ours offers an unlimited history of all data. They also don’t present all the messages and events from the press in an easy to understand visual timeline.”
Press Reporter continually shows the current press status of each machine: what job is on the press, how long it has been on the press, how many sheets have been run, how many times the press has stopped, why the press has stopped, and how much waste there has been. It also provides an easy to view timeline of press productivity and events, and this is all achieved automatically, without the need for any manual input.
This should show up running problems with the press as well as whether or not jobs are running as scheduled, and if other jobs to be rescheduled for another press. It also allows estimators to refer back to the actual cost of a job when quoting for similar work.
Colt Press, based at Witham in Essex, UK, has been testing the system. Managing director Paul Haddow says: “Our three year old Heidelberg XL75 five-colour is now connected to PressReporter and we are delighted with the results. A business of our size needs to get the basic information on press and job performance quickly and accurately. Our sales team especially have found it useful to be able to see job details on press – whether that is comparing actual performance data to the quote, or keeping a client informed on job progress.”
PressReporter has been written in HTML and Javascript and can be accessed through a web browser on any device including smartphones. It costs from £4,500 including hardware and installation.
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