Heidelberg Technologies Help Printers Get Ahead – from Prepress to Postpress and Beyond

Delaware’s Printing Office Stays Ahead with New Technologies
The State of Delaware’s Printing and Publishing Office in Dover is an operation that other states can admire. It recently installed a Heidelberg Quicksetter 300E platesetter, two 2-color Printmaster QM 46 presses and a Stahlfolder USA B 20 folder. Manager Sarah Bolado says the print shop runs more efficiently now and can keep a larger portion of its projects in-house. Before the installation, the shop sent electronic files to another print shop to have film output. With the Quicksetter’s computer-to-plate technology, making a plate has gone from 12-24 hours to just 30 minutes. Bolado says the two new QM 46s replace two older presses that broke down often and couldn’t print full density black. She says the new QM 46s print jobs faster and with higher quality. In addition, the shop’s old folder was noisy and couldn’t score, so color jobs often would crack when folded. With the new Stahlfolder, jobs that took three or four hours to fold, now take only an hour-and-a-half. Bolado says the Heidelberg solutions handle more complex and voluminous print projects. With 11 employees, The Printing and Publishing Office is a full-service printing facility that prints forms, letterhead, brochures and newsletters for all agencies that fall under Delaware’s executive branch of government.