Zero Make-Ready
The Timson T48A ZMR
Plates change at 550 metres per minute, waste stays under 30 copies. Run length stops deciding your margin.
+450 installations worldwide
Why the ZMR
Why choose the ZMR?
True zero make-ready
Twin over-and-under print units: one prints while you plate the other. The press simply never stops.
550 m/min (1,800 fpm)
1,800 feet per minute on short, high-page-count work — with the speed window to win long runs too.
Under 30 copies of waste
White waste and pull-up combined, per changeover. The more plate changes your work needs, the more the ZMR earns you.
Shaftless AC servo drive
No lineshaft, no backlash, no gear wear — every component driven independently for a smoother print and less maintenance.
48 or 64pp from a single web
One web matches the output of two or three standard webs: fewer bindery pockets, flatter signatures, faster binding.
One or two colours
Blanket-to-blanket under 40″ for tight-register two-colour work when you need it.
Around the press
Engineered so the press never stops.
Every component below protects the same number: zero minutes of make-ready downtime.
01550 metres a minute, end to end
Reel to folded signature at 1,800 feet per minute — while plates change.
02Tool-less plate loading
Pneumatic clamping, no tools: the plate dresses itself in the idle unit.
03A short web lead
Blanket-to-blanket under 40″ holds register for tight two-colour work.
04Cylinders cut to your formats
48 or 64pp from a single web — fewer forms per job, fewer bindery pockets.
05Built like a machine tool
Cast iron frames and stainless cylinders, machined in our own Kettering works.
06Clean, flat delivery
Signatures laid down bindery-ready, spine leading or trailing to suit your line.
In detail
The ZMR's additional features
Print & control
- Pneumatically controlled plate clamping — no tools
- Easy-access cylinders; operator removed from the moving web
- PC-based interface with remote fault diagnosis
- Prints high-bulk offset to Bible and dictionary stock
Build & support
- Cast iron frames, stainless steel cylinders — built for 24/7/365
- Major castings poured in Timsons' own Kettering foundry
- Assembled and print-tested before shipment; commissioned to the same standard in your plant
- Upgrade path: T48A → ZMR
The record
One ZMR set the world make-ready record. It still stands.
379
make-readies in 24 hours — 758 plates in one day
1.8M
pages per hour
40%
less paper waste reported
Set on a customer's production ZMR in May 2011 — nearly 16 make-readies an hour, around the clock. That's not a demo figure. That's a Tuesday.
Training & Support
We don't leave after commissioning.
A Timson press is a decades-long relationship. Installation, training, remote diagnostics, and lifetime parts all come from the works that built your machine — not a third party.
Installation & commissioning
Print-tested in Kettering, then commissioned to the same standard on your floor by our own technicians.
Operator training
Your crews trained on your press, by the people who built it — until they're running at full speed.
Remote diagnostics
Kettering and North America dial straight into the press for fault diagnosis and control updates.
Parts for life
Dedicated spares stock shipped ground, overnight, or same-day — even for presses built 40 years ago.
The range
Purpose-built for books, end to end.
The T48A
Three-minute make-readies. Profitable from 1,000 copies.
- Plates changed in under 3 minutes
- 28–120gsm — Bible stock to bulked trade
- Upgradeable in place to full ZMR
The Rotary FlexFold
Folds 1.28 million pages an hour behind your digital press.
- Zero-touch format changeovers
- 8–64pp with minimum blank pages
- 20″–60″ webs, 18–90 lb stocks
Timsons
The book press company. Since 1896.
Talk to us about your next press, an upgrade, or support for the Timson press already on your floor.