By now you’ve probably thought that we’ve been praising Heidelberg developments too much. Well, today we’re going to talk about the most unsuccessful machine of all time.

We’ll tell you about a printing press from Heidelberg that you’ve probably never heard of. Maybe it’s for the best, as this machine has earned the title of the worst printing machine ever produced by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

In the mid-60s, offset printing was becoming increasingly popular in the market. Buoyed by the incredible success of its first small offset machine, the K-offset series, Heidelberg realised that it is time to squeeze competitors such as Roland, Miehle and Harris, which had already established themselves in the 71×102 cm format for quite some time. The world needed a modern multi-colour offset machine that could handle newspapers, posters and books.

But the problem was that Heidelberg didn’t have much time to think about it. The competitors developed on the basis of their own experience and patents, and our hero entered the game, alas, last. Usually it takes years to develop a printing machine, and Hubert Sternberg decided to create a new model based on a sheet-fed rotary letterpress machine that printed from stereotypes.

Thus was born the Rotaspeed model, which in two-colour version RZO Heidelberg demonstrated at the TPG exhibition in Paris. A little later, a four unit version RVO was also available.

The new machine had the following features:

Among these were the rotating in-feed drum, which offered an alternative to Miller and Harris’ feed rolls and Roland’s swing arm.

• A high-capacity ink unit was equipped with five (!) ink rollers, which were designed to keep printing stability consistently over long runs.
• Single diameter printing cylinders and double diameter transfer cylinders.
• Chain drive between units.
• Each printing unit was equipped with its own powder device.
• Absolutely new feeder which was designed from scratch. Unlike the small K-offset, the sheet was lifted by the rear area and transported on the overhead table directly to the rotary stop-gripping mechanism.All in all, the beginning was promising, but…..

But it soon turned out that the Rotaspeed was a monster with many unsolvable problems.

 

The technical problems started to appear immediately, because the company was in a hurry to bring the model to market. Despite its great looks and some interesting features such as five plate rollers, the Rotaspeed was extremely unreliable and uncomfortable to operate.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find an authentic schematic of the Heidelberg Rotaspeed series printing machine. We give schematics of two other machines, built on a similar principle of chain supply, produced in the former USSR – POL-74 and POL-80. The differences were that the cylinders were all single diameter and the units were not made in mirror image of each other. Nevertheless, they also suffered from the same problems and in the end were withdrawn from production.

The mirroring of the printing units was not an advantage, but a serious ergonomic disadvantage of the machine. There was insufficient space for the printer to service the plate and there was a risk of workplace injuries. The problematic Spiess BX feeder head was too heavy and made it difficult to feed certain types of stock, such as label paper.

The main complaint about this printing machine, however, was the sheet transfer between units using a chain drive. Only Roland had successfully used the chain system since it was introduced in 1950s, and incidentally it survived till 2000.

For some unfathomable reason, Heidelberg sought to replicate the concept. Sure, this design was much cheaper than traditional cylinders and gears. But Heidelberg had no experience in designing such sheetmetal wiring. The chains, which were stretched due to overly heavy gripper bars, soon made colour combination impossible. Even adding ‘register racks’ did not eliminate misalignment. Heidelberg then switched to a lighter bar made of suliminium (a composite metal invented by Germany during World War II). The suliminium really reduced the weight of the bar, and Heidelberg engineers thought that a lighter transfer grip would provide better register. Once again, it failed.

Rotaspeed’s legacy.

The Rotaspeed printing machine debacle delayed the launch of the next S-offset series for a couple of years. But the developers did a lot of work on their mistakes and finally decided to give up on the chain transmission between units.

As a result of the work carried out, the normal drum transfer with gears which we all know well, became standard for all Heidelberg machines from 1968.

Of course, the designers did their best to correct the machine’s problem areas. No one could question the effort put into the Rotaspeed, but for many reasons its end was near. It was no longer possible to develop this design.

Fortunately for everyone, 1975 was the year Harris-Intertype got out of the sheetfed printing machine business. The loss of such a major competitor was a godsend for Heidelberg, and the company realised that it would have to find a better solution before companies like Miller and Roland took market share away from it.

The year later, to everyone’s relief, the Rotaspeed’s travails came to an end for good: it was finally discontinued. It was completely replaced by the S-offset series and the faster Speedmaster SM102.

However, Heidelberg machines of this series Rotaspeed are still found on the second-hand market. The company Howard Iron Works restored two-color machine from 1967 and installed it in their printing museum. This thorough job is especially worth appreciating. And finally, as they said, ‘In 1976, Heidelberg put the RotaSpeed out of its misery’. From the ashes of the Rotaspeed emerged the Speedmaster series.

The Rotaspeed, although superbly engineered, but it’s not without its flaws, never did reach the expectations the designers had hoped for. It become the source of some interesting developments for the future models. Anyway it was good experience as Heidelberg’s entry press in the multi-colour B1 offset press market of the mid-1960s.

You probably won’t buy a printing machine like this for your print shop anymore. No matter which used equipment you choose, the only way to avoid problems in future is to order a report on the technical condition of the machine.

Pressinspection.com is a one-of-a-kind company specialising in both technical inspections for printing equipment buyers and solving your crisis issues in management, technology and customer communication. Contact us if you feel that you are losing market share or being overtaken by your competitors. Together we will find a way to improve your operations without breaking your budget.

This material is based on the material collected by Mr. Nick Howard, a great admirer of old printing machines.

Supplementary materials

And this is a video where, although not in the best quality, you can see this rare sheet-fed printing press today.

The photo below shows an art installation in the form of a Rotaspeed printing machine on the wall of a print shop on the road from Warsaw to Grodzisk Mazowiecki (Poland).

 

Also available on Medium.com