Heidelberg Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the “Saphira” Brand

Heidelberg recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of the “Saphira” brand. With Saphira, Heidelberg offers an extensive portfolio of high-quality consumables, both for everyday print jobs and special applications, as well as all production requirements for prepress, press and postpress. All consumables were optimized and tested specially for use in Heidelberg solutions. They help the user to exploit the full scope of performance of his machines and to achieve high-quality printing results.

“The Saphira products fully meet our requirements,” confirms Benn Murphy, Managing Director of Clarke Murphy Print in Sydney, Australia. The full-service print shop has put its faith in the Heidelberg machines and also orders all its consumables, as well as additional service and spare parts from Heidelberg. “We see Heidelberg as a one-stop-shop and are impressed by the high quality and reliability of the Saphira products.”

The AZ Druck und Datentechnik GmbH print shop in Kempten, Germany, has been working with Saphira products such as plates, inks, pressroom chemicals and printing supplies for many years. “We appreciate the know-how that is contained within Saphira products and we know that everything can be processed perfectly on our machines,” confirms Sebastian Aufter, Operations Manager at AZ Druck und Datentechnik.

At the same time, the Saphira products meet all industry standards for the protection of the environment and, overall, contribute considerably to the level of investment security of the equipment used. The ECO product line, which meets the strictest environmental protection criteria of the printing industry, should be particularly highlighted in this regard. Simpsons Printing in Rapid City, USA, installed a Suprasetter A75 and orders the chemical-free Saphira ND 100 plate. “We can now do without the darkroom all chemicals and water, and can image directly on the plate,” explains Vice President Jonathan Simpson. The environment is protected and costs are reduced.

Furthermore, besides the Saphira products, Heidelberg also offers consumables of other providers under their own brands.

In 2008, Heidelberg took over the special print vanish manufacturer Hi-Tech Coatings International with production locations in Zwaag (Netherlands) and Aylesbury (England), supplemented by license production in Australia, India, and in the Middle East, and with its own coating production facility in Taylor (USA).

As a next step, the Belgian printing chemicals provider Blueprint Products NV was acquired in 2014. In 2017, Heidelberg took over the coatings and pressroom chemicals business of its strategic partner Fujifilm Europe B.V. in the EMEA region. Heidelberg thus achieved a market share of around ten percent in the pressroom chemicals sector in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The acquisition adds to the Heidelberg offering of environmentally-friendly Saphira printing chemicals provided by its subsidiary BluePrint.

In addition, it strengthens the business with Saphira coatings, which Heidelberg has combined with its subsidiary Hi-Tech Coatings, in particular, to meet increasing customer requirements in digital printing and in the growing packaging printing sector. Consequently, Heidelberg is positioned among the top five largest suppliers worldwide in the coatings sector. Heidelberg develops custom solutions for specific applications. Its range already includes 2,500 coating formulations for special and standard applications.

More and more Heidelberg customers around the world are ordering the Heidelberg Saphira coatings and other consumables online. Around 2,300 of these customers are already registered and active in the Heidelberg Online Shop – and the trend is increasing.

The global market for consumables exceeds eight billion euros. Heidelberg currently has a market share of around five percent. By 2022, Heidelberg intends to considerably increase sales growth in the area of consumables through subscription and omnichannel models as well as digital transformation. As a key component, Saphira supports both models. With the subscription or operator model, Heidelberg supplies a “smart” complete system, consisting of machines, services, consumables and software, installs it and supports the management of production.

Heidelberg retains ownership of the production system and makes sure that the printing process runs optimally with maximum availability. The customer pays per printed sheet. The omnichannel model links the machine data with order transactions, enabling proactive delivery. With the “Heidelberg Digital Unit”, Heidelberg has launched a new competence centre for digital marketing and eCommerce that will, above all, also serve the growing consumables market.

Last fall, the Consumables and Services divisions at Heidelberg were merged to form the new Lifecycle Solutions division. The new division will offer customers additional solution packages beyond the existing product portfolio, including services, application know-how and consumables, over the entire lifecycle of the machine. In this way, the customer improves his competitiveness and is ready for his next investment. “In the future, we want to be a strong partner for our customers with our digital technologies and networked systems,” explains Dr. Frank Schaum, Head of the Lifecycle Solutions division. “In the digital age, the focus is much more on customer benefit for the business model, and less on the product. In this way, we help our customers to significantly increase productivity through a coordinated range of consumables and systems, enable maximum availability through preventive maintenance, and simplify the procurement and logistics of consumables. Our subscription models give our customers more freedom to take care of their business.”

Since April, customers can order three additional types of coating from Heidelberg: Saphira Hybrid-Coating H1505 Extra Matt, Saphira Coating W7501 Super HG 1 Side and Saphira Coating W7509 HG 2 Side for a maximum gloss level of dispersion coating for single-sided or double-sided coating. Saphira Hybrid-Coating H1505 Extra Matt is an extra matt hybrid coating system with a very matt, homogeneous surface combined with maximum abrasion and scratch resistance.

The coating is dried with hot air and develops its characteristic properties thanks to the subsequent UV curing. The surface effect is comparable to UV matt coating with extremely easy and convenient processing. H1505 ensures cost-effective production thanks to high machine productivity. It is characterized by the very high resilience of the surface, which reliably prevents damage during postpress and transport.

Saphira Coating W7501 Super HG 1 Side provides a maximum gloss level of dispersion coating for single-sided coating and impresses with its fast drying in relation to the gloss level. Saphira Coating W7509 HG 2 Side provides a maximum gloss level of dispersion coating for double-sided coating combined with maximum process reliability. Thanks to its very fast drying and extremely good wet-blocking resistance, the glueing of sheets or the subsequent blocking of straight printing and perfecting are prevented even with high colour assignment or highly emulsifying spot colours.