The Speedmaster CX 104 was first unveiled at China Print 2021 and has since been installed more than 950 times. More than 6,100 of its printing, coating, and drying units have been delivered worldwide, making it the biggest selling sheetfed offset printing press that Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (HEIDELBERG) has ever made.

 In one year, all the systems installed globally churned out a collective total of eleven billion printed sheets.

The Speedmaster CX 104 gives commercial, packaging, and label print shops access to modern technology from HEIDELBERG. It runs at a printing speed of up to 16,500 sheets/h and can be configured as a Push-to-Stop press for autonomous printing supported by a range of AI-based assistance systems.

In this role, it processes a wide spectrum of printing substrates, ranging from lightweight papers to cardboard, which is what makes it suitable for use in both packaging and commercial printing.

The Speedmaster CX 104 can be freely configured as anything from a four-color system with and without coating unit to a customized machine comprising up to 20 printing, coating, and drying units.

It can be equipped with the FoilStar cold foil module and the fourth-generation CutStar sheeter. The longest Speedmaster CX 104 to date comprises 17 printing, drying, and coating units and is being used by a customer to manufacture high-quality packaging and specialty printing products.

The numerous customers who have opted for a Speedmaster CX 104 over recent years include many packaging printers based in Europe, the US, and emerging markets across Asia. Countless companies have invested not just in the sheetfed offset press, but also in die cutter and folder gluer technology from MK Masterwork. This has enabled HEIDELBERG to harness growth potential in the packaging printing sector.

“The Speedmaster CX 104 is our bestseller and, thanks to its flexibility and versatility, it is a favorite of many of our customers all round the world,” says Dr. David Schmedding, chief technology and sales officer at HEIDELBERG. “The numerous investments in this press and in the postpress systems offered by our partner MK Masterwork show that customers are being won over by our approach as a systems integrator for packaging printing.”