CHICAGO, IL - According to some marketers in recent reports, the 1980s Supermom era when women wanted to work, have children and have it all is over. Today’s woman apparently prefers a different, less hectic lifestyle. If that is true, someone forgot to tell Judy Larson and Tamara Williams. Co-owners of an Insty-Prints shop in Kalispell, Montana, these two women have it all plus some. Helping them find extra time each day are two pieces of technology-laden equipment from A.B.Dick Company: the top-selling DPM2340 digital platemaster direct-to-plate device, and a 9995A-ICS (Ink Control System) offset press with an Ink Volume Setter (IVS) software package. The results in the last six months have been impressive. “Since adding the DPM2340 and the 9995A-ICS press, we have increased the number of jobs and our workflow by 15-20% per day,” said Williams. “The automation capabilities were a big factor in our decision to buy this equipment. Production-wise, our previous set-up was failing because we constantly needed to tweak the process and it was very time consuming. The A.B.Dick equipment is performing above and beyond our expectations.” Time is of critical importance for Larson and Williams, who worked at the shop for 16 years before buying it seven years ago. Both balance work schedules with family and community activities. Larson is the mother of three and Williams has two children, plus serves as Chairman of the local School Board. To make everything work, they rely on what Williams says is “an extraordinary staff of 16 people who manage themselves very well.” The employees work in a downtown storefront location and at a smaller shop elsewhere in the Flathead Valley, both of which are tucked into the northwest corner of the state. All of their jobs are with local businesses. While they do a little bit of everything including some four-color work, the majority is one or two-color. “Where we live, the newer technology takes a little longer to reach us. We attended some conferences, gleaned information from other owners and had time to do research,” recalled Williams. “We got good value for the price of the DPM2340 and the 9995A-ICS press. We took our time to understand what was available in the market and researched products that Heidelberg, Xpedx and Ryobi had to offer. We also compared volumes and what would work best for production. Everything pointed to A.B.Dick.” Besides production capability, Larson and Williams had their customers in mind, too. “We do work for some diverse groups,” said Williams. “This area has a significant medical community in addition to the timber industry, computer software companies and warehousing. We do letterheads and business cards, but we also print short-run (100-500 copies) booklets and operation and production manuals. The one thing they all share is a demand for quality. It’s incredible with this equipment to generate and produce something that holds true to its original values.” Like most printers, Williams is impressed with the DPM2340 and its ScanMaster digital scanning feature. “The DPM2340 is extraordinarily user-friendly and is low maintenance. We are a high production shop and do five or six color washes a day. Since the DPM2340 is a relatively easy process to use, we only needed a little amount of training. The 8-mil polyester plates we’re using have worked well 99% of the time. And ScanMaster is a very nice feature we will be using more of in the future.” The 9995A-ICS press is a true two-color portrait-sized offset press with state-of-the-art automated features. Digitally compatible, it offers a semi-automatic plate loader that allows plate changes in less than two minutes. The 9995A-ICS also reduces the time needed for making registration adjustments while increasing plate mounting accuracy. “The speed is excellent and the functions on the 9995A-ICS work very well,” said Williams. “The sheet registration is outstanding, which we consider the most critical for color registration. The automatic blanket washers are also a big time saver. It’s proven to be tried and true.” The Ink Volume Setter (IVS) software program on the 9995A-ICS press allows the computer to review a job prior to printing. Operators can reduce set-up time by sending information to the console as a starting value for the ink fountain openings when beginning a job. It also cuts the waste of running sheets before determining the proper ink density.