14 May 2009
Sinapse Sheetfed Simulators used in WorldSkills Competition
From WhatTheyThink?
The WorldSkills Competition, held every two years, offers the chance for skilled craftsmen and women from all fields (Nursing to Printing to Graphic Design to Landscape Gardening) to compete and win recognition as the “best” in their field. 51 Member countries/regions have national competitions to select the contestants who will compete in WorldSkills.
The next of these international skills competitions will be held in Calgary from September 1-7, 2009, and is expected to attract 100 000+ attendees. 14 Member countries/regions are currently sending Competitors for the print competition. Naturally, such competitions demand a realistic working environment and a “level playing field” for all contestants. In the past, all print competitions used real presses which had to be transported, set up, and reset to perfect after each use.
This year, in order to allow all contestants more “printing time” and to be able to assess a wider range of skills, the competition will use two Heidelberg presses and five SHOTS Sheetfed Training Simulators from Sinapse Print Simulators. The SHOTS simulator won the prestigious PIA/GATF InterTech award as innovative technology when it was first released, and has now reached a new level of industrial acceptance with its inclusion in the WorldSkills Competition. While there is nothing new about using simulators to train and evaluate operators (flight simulators, etc), they have now taken their place in the print world.