Workshop 06 draws companies from all over Europe

'Think Smart, Think Profit' was the theme of this year's Workshop 06 event hosted by Friedheim International, Komori UK, Muller Martini and Print Finance at Komori's Leeds, UK demo facilities. More than 200 people from all over Europe attended the three-day event where the focus was both on practical demonstrations on a range of first class pre-press, press and finishing equipment and no-nonsense advice on reducing the cost of ownership. The joint sponsors were joined by an range of industry-leading companies, including Baldwin, Dupont, Fuji, Nordson, PaperCo, Screen, Technotrans, Tharstern and Weko, to stage an exciting display of creative production technology producing live print jobs.

Paul Coggins, managing director of Print Finance Plc said: ‘Many companies traveled quite a distance to attend Workshop 06 and to spend the time looking at technologies and business issues and opportunities in depth. The real attraction is seeing the different suppliers' equipment communicating and producing live work all under one roof.  We had visitors from all over England and Ireland who placed orders as a direct result of attending Workshop 06.’

Attracting particular interest was a B1 ten color Komori Lithrone S1040 Perfector fitted with a Mabeg ReelSheeter providing exclusive reel to sheet demonstrations for the first time in Europe. A five color B2 Komori Lithrone S529 complemented the press line up. Friedheim demonstrated an extensive range of finishing kit including the MBO fully automatic folding machine, the Palamides Alpha and popular Bograma, and Muller Martini attracted a crowd with its super fast 12,000cph BravoPlus AMRYS saddle stitcher. 70 print students from Leeds College of Technology were keen for the opportunity to witness all this equipment working together and were given a private demonstration.

The sponsors designed two 20 page magazines which contain information on each of the 13 Workshop companies and address the financial implications of purchasing kit on show at the event.  Visitors could watch these documents being printed live on the LS1040P, folded on the MBO and stitched on the BravoPlus, then take copies hot off the press.  The covers were laminated on Friedheim's new Tauler 105 laminating machine which was sold directly from the show to a customer who had traveled from Ireland to attend.

Experts from Print Finance were on hand to provide advice and calculate the lifetime costs of any investment. Paul Coggins said: ‘Calculating the lifetime cost of equipment is very important and should include: productivity, manning implications, finance and the impact upon other departments.  The true cost of ownership and evaluating the benefits of investment featured heavily at Workshop 06.  Not only did we demonstrate a lot of very clever equipment, but we also demonstrated how it could be afforded.’