New plate material and Smart Spooling reduce operating costs At CeBIT in Hanover, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) will be presenting the Quickmaster DI 46-4 Pro digital offset press with a package consisting of the new Saphira Caleidoplate 46 plate material and innovative format-dependent spooling of the printing plate role. These two innovations considerably improve the cost-effectiveness of the press. 1,800 Quickmaster DI units have already been installed worldwide making it the market leader on the short-run color market. Saphira Caleidoplate 46 – an optional new plate material From 2Q 2003, Heidelberg will be offering its Quickmaster DI customers a choice of two different plate materials. As well as PearlDry Plus, the current product, the company will also be offering the Saphira Caleidoplate 46 as an alternative plate material. The Caleidoplate will initially only be available for the Plus and Pro versions of the Quickmaster DI. A solution for the Classic models is currently under development. "Ever since the introduction of the Quickmaster DI, our customers have been wanting a choice of plate materials," says Gotthard Schmid, Head of the Direct Imaging and Computer to Plate Product Center at Heidelberg. "This new plate is a response to our customers' wishes. Our aim is to reduce the operating costs of the Quickmaster DI, making this press more cost-effective in the future so that our customers can be even more successful", he adds. Optimized, cost-effective plate consumption The printing units of the Quickmaster DI 46-4 Pro are equipped with four plate cylinders, each with an integrated printing plate roll. Up till now, the supply of plate material these contained was enough for exactly 36 consecutive print jobs. The new V 3.0 press software now supports format-dependent spooling. The plate spooling mechanism adjusts to the size of the document to be imaged, eliminating the need to spool a complete plate in full format for every job and thereby also cutting consumption. This is particularly useful for small-format jobs such as envelopes and letterheads or for imprinting onto pre-printed documents. Depending on the structure of the job, this also considerably reduces the costs involved with plate material.