Thurbon will hang up his tool-kit a day after his 60th birthday on 9 September. He joined the firm in 1986 as general service manager and was a board member within a year.

"In those days there was a man-with-a-van culture and some of the engineers even travelled with their dogs," he said.

"When we developed CPTronic in the late '80s their role became more complex and now they have laptops and PDAs as travelling companions."

Heidelberg chief executive Bernhard Schreier dubbed him "the father of PDA" for his lead in adopting the web-based hand-held technology to access service records and technical data.

Thurbon was also integral to the firm's HQM (Heidelberg Quality Management) programme, which was launched in response to the problems with the Speedmaster SM 74 a decade ago.

Ian Wilcock, who has been with Heidelberg for five years, will take over Thurbon's responsibilities, stepping up to service development manager.

Story by Jez Abbott