Why did Heidelberg discontinue DI presses?

With ~1,000,000 impressions on our color copiers, I had imagined the next step might be a DI press some years in the future for a compact footprint short-run solution (runs of 1,200-2,500) so I was surprised to read that Heidelberg has discontinued it's DI press lines including the benchmark DI 46-4.

What were the drawbacks?

Simply the imaging technology dating the press too quickly while advances are still being made in offline CTP solutions?

Or is the difficulty or expense maintaining the complexity of the small footprint DI presses too much?

Or were there print quality advantages that couldn't be realized in a small footprint DI device.

 

di presses

I thought I heard the Heidelberg was working with Presstek on this. Presstek developed the imaging unit. Now that Heidelberg dropped it the last I heard was that Presstek was going to use a Ryobi press and develope a new line. It was in a discussion group somewhere. Any other comments out there. I was more interested in a DI press in a couple of years than to develope process in our shop.

 

I can't find any numbers for how many Ryobi 3404 presses are currently installed, but it seems these are by far the most common DI presses right now, imaging also by presstek. I suppose for the cost of a new 3404 ($375,000 new!) I could buy a used offset press, the very best current CTP, a new shop, and a team to help with the labor of the old press and still have a ton of money to spare, but the concept of a DI press sure is appealing-- something about old-fashioned ink on gloss stock that you can't get around, but with the same ability to print in 7 minutes (just a little more than my current 4 minute RIP time for a 600 dpi 11.5 x 17.5 image)

 

What are the differences between the Ryobi 3404 direct from Ryobi, the KBA 46 Karat ( http://www.kba-print.de/en/home/produkte2/digitaldruck3/46karat_text_d_s1.html ), and the Nexpress KODAK DIRECTPRESS 5634 DI System ( http://graphics.kodak.com/global/pr.../kodak_directpress_5634_di_system/default.htm )

Obviously there are differences in the prepress systems bundled, but these seem pretty minor when looked at from the perspective of the total system cost. Is there a large manufacturing difference? Are there other major components to these presses that make a large difference? Or is it the service/support/availability network & financing options that make the difference mainly?

Are there any radically different designs for a DI press out there currently?

 

I'm sorry - the Ryobi 3404 and Heidelberg QMDI 46_4 are quite different in that the Ryobi uses two large blanket cylinders that each build two colors, whereas the Heidelberg has 4 blanket cylinders, 1 per color. Which is a superior design?

 

I personally would say the Heidelbeg as there is less risk of cross colour contamination when there is just 1 colour to 1 blanket, as opposed to 2 colours to 1 blanket.

Regards.

 

Here's the original link to the story: http://www.printweek.com/news/545464/Heidelberg-consigns-DI-press-ranges-history/

seems like everybody is sleeping in everybody else's bed

 

We have a Presstek 34 DI in our Heidelberg shop. It does a four color makeready start to finish in 15 minutes tops. It has two units with two colors in each unit. Double sided blanket and plate cyl. Triple sided back cyl. Once the sheets goes to impression it never transfers until the delivery chain.The waterless rinting makes it possible to print 300 linescreen flawlessly. It is all closed loop with a nonsegmented ink fountain so there are no deadspots to smooth out in the roller train. The data sent from prep pressets the ink, usually get runable color in about 50 sheets depending on how much of a change from the previous job. It averages out to about 10 bucks a plate. We run at consistant speed of 6500 an hour. The ONLY drawback with the machine so far is some occasional ghosting due to the small diameter of the rollers. When I first saw it I laughed, it was just another Ryobi to me but it has proven to be a very profitable machine in an increasingly difficult market.

 

I like our QMDI, and we were close to buying a Presstek press (the Ryobi rebadged) but went with a used QMDI Pro. We get the same ghosting issues, and we are happy as we run 9500iph.

The plates are too expensive! We're going to conventional and the difference in plate costs will give us an ROI on the CTP system in less than a year of ownership.