Historical information

This is a set of 19 photographs of the four types of printing presses in Lithographic Squadron at the Army Survey Regiment, Bendigo in the late 1980s. The Original Heidelberg Printing Press features in photograph 6188.1P. It was a robust and well-made single colour lithographic offset press that was in service at the Army Svy Regt for decades. Its primary use was for initial training and rapid response tasks, such as single pass overprints over existing print stock. See item 6062.4P for more information and photographs of the Heidelberg press. The Komori Newkoni Printing Press features in photographs 6188.2P to 6188.6P. It was a four-colour offset press in service at the Army Svy Regt from 1975 to the late 1980s. Intended improvements to productivity were not realised as it was unreliable, was very cramped between decks and there were safety concerns for the operators. See item 6063.5P for more information and photographs of the Komori press. The Planeta Polygraph Printing Press features in photographs 6188.7P to 6188.11P. It was a two-colour offset press in service from 1976 to 1994 and was mainly used to print Naval and medium format RAAF charts. It was more reliable than the Komori Printing Press however procurement was difficult when spare parts were required. It was replaced by the larger format Roland 8047B four colour Printing Press. See item 6064.9P for more information and photographs of the Planeta press. The Ultra-MAN-III Printing Presses feature in photograph 6188.12P to 6188.19P. The two presses were a standard map size format and were introduced in June 1962 as two-colour offset presses with improved safety features. Productivity greatly improved with the addition of a third colour deck in 1968, as the two presses could print a five-colour standard topographic map in two rather than the three passes before the upgrade. See item 6065.10P for more information and photographs of the Ultra-MAN-III presses. They were replaced with a single Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 five colour Printing Press in 1990. See item 6136.30P for more information and photographs of the Speedmaster press.

Physical description

This is a set of 19 photographs of the four types of printing presses in Lithographic Squadron at the Army Survey Regiment, Bendigo in the late 1980s. The photographs were on 35mm negative film and scanned at 96 dpi. They are part of the Army Survey Regiment’s Collection.
.1) - Photo, colour, c1980s, Original Heidelberg Printing Press, Print technician Jeff Willey on right, Lithographic Squadron.
.2) to .6) - Photo, colour, c1980s, Komori Newkoni Printing Press, Lithographic Squadron.
.7) to .11) - Photo, colour, c1980s, Planeta Polygraph Printing Press, Lithographic Squadron.
.12) to .19) - Photo, colour, c1980s, Ultra-MAN-III Printing Presses, Lithographic Squadron.

Inscriptions & markings

There are no annotations.