Cutters and Platesetters Top Heidelberg's Latest Product Installations

KENNESAW, GA—May 28, 2010—Heidelberg USA announces the following new product installations:

Old York Road Publishing Picks Up the Pace with Suprasetter 105

Old York Road Publishing, Warminster, PA, recently upgraded its premedia operations with an 8-up Suprasetter 105 from Heidelberg. The new CTP device replaces an older, slower competitive platesetter. According to Bob Reheil, premedia manager in charge of customer service/prepress, the company was looking for greater speed and dependability, together with high quality, ease of use, and outstanding service and support after the sale.

Check, check and double-check, said Reheil: “We couldn’t be happier with the machine and the support Heidelberg provides. We’ve had to call but during that one call, Heidelberg experts set us up perfectly then and there. When you’re used to getting the run-around from other suppliers, Heidelberg Systemservice is a breath of fresh air.”

The new Suprasetter produces around 500 to 600 Saphira Chemfree 101 thermal plates each month for use with Old York’s five-month-old, 6-color Speedmaster CD 102, with no variation in company-specified exposures or line screens. The company also operates a Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 and a Speedmaster SM 52.

Established 35 years ago and employing a staff of 50, Old York Road Publishing Co. is a general commercial printer serving a variety of Fortune 500, university and agency accounts across the nation. In addition to its primary production facility in Warminster, the company also operates a nearby bindery, shipping and receiving facility. That facility is equipped with a variety of postpress equipment, including a pair of Heidelberg Stitchmaster saddlestitchers.

“We need speed, quality and dependability from our equipment,” Reheil said. “Heidelberg gives us a feeling of security knowing that we have the best built machinery in the industry.”

Superb quality with maximum production capability: Suprasetter 105.

New York City College of Technology Students to Benefit from New POLAR 115 X Cutter

A new, high-speed, programmable 45˝ POLAR 115 X paper cutter is at work in the Department of Advertising Design and Graphic Arts (ADGA) at New York City College of Technology, where it will be a learning platform for students pursuing two- and four-year degrees in graphic arts and production management. The new cutter, says Lloyd Carr, director of graphic arts studies, “replaces a mid-20th century, analog POLAR cutter with a more precise, programmable, managed workflow, and safer, more productive functionality. ADGA is hopeful that the new cutter’s features and benefits will continue to be efficiently and effectively valuable through the next few decades.”

Carr says that Heidelberg helped by training four faculty members in the use of the POLAR 115 X. “Ongoing curriculum development raised an urgent awareness of the need to include networkable bindery equipment to help educate graphic design and production students,” says Carr, whose department serves about 1,100 students. “Graphic communication design and graphic arts production management objectives can now make direct connections to timely, functional industry needs using this new equipment.”

Located in downtown Brooklyn, City Tech is a division of the City University of New York (CUNY). It is the largest four-year public college of technology in the northeastern U.S.

POLAR, the first name in trend-setting cutting technology.

Suprasetter 105 and Saphira Consumables Boost JKG Group’s Platemaking Efficiency

JKG Group in Boca Raton, FL, a commercial printing company with a proprietary web-to-print strategy, recently took delivery of an 8-up Suprasetter 105 MCL CtP device to replace an aging competitive model. According to COO Michael Woodring, the company was very favorably impressed, not only with the performance of the Heidelberg machine, but also with Heidelberg’s superior sales and service effort. “The individuals Heidelberg sent to assist us with installation and training were top notch,” Woodring noted.

Thanks to a built-in web interface that enables the company to remotely police and monitor its separately located prepress, electronic stripping and proofing operation, the new Suprasetter also has greatly improved JKG’s platemaking efficiency. Performance gets a boost from the company’s use of Saphira Thermoplate PN plates and chemistry. “We’re very happy with the quality of our reproduction,” Woodring said.

The new Suprasetter images plates for use with JKG’s Speedmaster CD 102 6-color and three Printmaster QM 46 2-color presses. The company also uses Heidelberg Saphira pressroom consumables, including blankets, fountain solution and coatings. The company’s reliance on Heidelberg solutions boils down to feeling that “we could raise our quality level by keeping things as much as possible on a single platform.”

Founded in 1984, JKG Group serves a national clientele made up primarily of large corporations. The company employs a staff of 100.

Unique in its class: Suprasetter 105.

Johnson Printing Service Turns to POLAR to Relieve Cutting Bottlenecks

Johnson Printing Service in Dallas, has installed a POLAR 78X high-speed, programmable 4-up paper cutter to replace an aging machine. The new cutter joins an existing POLAR 78 EM cutter in the company’s full-service bindery.

“We needed something newer and faster, and we knew we wanted another POLAR machine,” said company CEO Bob Johnson, Jr. “Now that the 78X cutter has been up and running for a few months, we’re thoroughly impressed by its accuracy and delighted with our 20 percent increase in productivity. We also know we have a machine that will give us year after year of the same high performance.” Johnson praised the new cutter’s operator-friendly, 15-inch TFT display and ability to store and recall job parameters, as well as the optional right and left side tables with air supply that permits easier handling of materials including text and lightweight cover stocks, as well as chip- and binder-board.

Johnson Printing Service specializes in the production of loose-leaf books, manuals, soft cover books and a wide range of educational and training materials, most of which wind up at the cutter for trimming. The company also uses the new POLAR 78X to trim parent sheets to press size. Traffic to and from the cutting department ranges “from busy to really busy,” according to Johnson, who confirmed that the addition of the faster, more productive 78X has relieved some of the potential for bottlenecks there.

Is it fair to say that the new cutter has lived up to its owner’s expectations? “We’ve had good experience and good luck with our previous POLAR cutters,” Johnson said, “and we’re more than satisfied with Heidelberg sales and service.”

For 31 years, Johnson Printing Service has served a wide mix of Fortune 1000 clients and other companies that specialize in training and educational materials. The company employs a staff of 40 at its 40,000-square-foot manufacturing and fulfillment facility in Dallas.

POLAR accuracy: second to none.

'Reliability is a Given:' Lawrence Printing Installs New Printmaster QM 46

Fourth-generation, family owned Lawrence Printing Company in Greenwood, MS, recently said goodbye to an older-model Printmaster QM 46 and hello to a new QM 46 2-color press. “We went straight to Heidelberg to replace the press,” said company president George Ellis. “It’s a reliable piece of equipment we wouldn’t want to be without.” The new press is dedicated to turning out a variety of high-quality letterheads and bank forms. Elsewhere in the shop, the company operates a Heidelberg KORS single-color press. It also uses a variety of Heidelberg Saphira pressroom consumables to ensure the new QM 46 lasts as long and performs as dependably as its predecessor.

Established in 1919 and with a staff of 45, Lawrence Printing claims to be the largest offset forms printer in the state of Mississippi and also boasts a growing digital printing operation. With annual sales revenue between $5 million and $10 million, the company ships products nationwide. “We’ve always had Heidelberg equipment,” Ellis said. “Reliability is a given, and the service is great. We’ve always been satisfied with Heidelberg.”

Productivity and flexibility in tandem: Printmaster QM 46.

Napco Stays Sharp with New POLAR Cutting System

Napco, Inc. of Sparta, NC, recently replaced an aging paper cutter with a new POLAR 137 XT cutting system from Heidelberg. The new machine brings the number of POLAR cutters in operation at the company to three.

According to plant engineer Rick Proffitt, the addition of the new cutter has “sped up our trimming process considerably,” thanks to the 137 XT’s deeper throat, which makes for more efficient handling of stock as wide as 54-60”. “Our operators really like the machine because it’s easier to work with,” Proffitt added, citing the convenient control panel with integrated touchscreen display that permits direct selection of all program functions.

Established in 1976 and currently with 95 employees, $15 million Napco, Inc. is a leading provider of packaging and paperboard products worldwide. The company prides itself on its ability to take on a variety of complex jobs ranging from multimedia packaging, turned edge custom binders and promotional presentation materials, to POP, retail packaging and novelty displays—all of which require cutting accuracy in the execution.

The company has relied on POLAR cutting equipment for many years, Proffitt confirms. “Rare as they are,” he said, “any time we have a problem, Heidelberg is there.”

POLAR, where power and productivity meet ease-of-use.

Zoo Printing Furnishes New Plant with Heidelberg Postpress Equipment

Zoo Printing is a web-to-print, gang-run, trade printing business based in Commerce, Calif. and serving graphic designers, print brokers, print shops and ad agencies nationwide. The company recently opened a new, 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Louisville, KY, to better handle the needs of its East Coast customers. In equipping the postpress area of the new plant, Zoo turned once more to Heidelberg, its postpress supplier of choice.

Among the new installations at the Kentucky facility are a pair of POLAR 137 XT and two POLAR 115 XT cutting systems, each networked via POLAR P-Net and equipped with Compucut software; as well as a pair of USA B-20 continuous-feed folders. Once the company phases in all of its services at the new plant, the new cutters and folders are expected to run around the clock, turning out a staggering variety of products including business cards, flyers and brochures of every description, notepads, greeting cards, and everything in-between.

According to general manager Ark Andoun, Zoo’s past history and experience with Heidelberg equipment at its California plant has more than proven the value of Heidelberg engineering in terms of reliability and durability. “The equipment lasts forever, gives great results, and the hands-on service is second-to-none. There was never a question—or reason—that we would look elsewhere to furnish our new facility,” he said.

Around-the-clock reliability, courtesy of POLAR.