Rolling Meadows, IL January 15, 2008 - The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR) has installed 2 of alfaQuest Technologies' FasTRAK Violet 180 CTP imaging devices coupled with 2 of alfaQuest's TRAKmate 2 automatic plate loaders.

The FasTRAK Violet 180 PPH CTP imagers provide breakthrough technology by offering high speed and high quality in a small footprint and at a very competitive price.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's TRAKmate 2 autoloaders (1000-plate capacity each) remove slipsheets and pre-stage plates to ensure a constant plate supply to the FasTRAK Violet 180's. The Democrat-Gazette has chosen the highly successful Fuji LP-NNV plate with Glunz & Jensen's Interplater 85 HD processors and Nela online OPB's for a hands-free plate making operation.

Lynn Hamilton, VP of Operations for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette states, "The installation and startup went as smoothly as any major equipment upgrade we've made in the past 30 years.  We chose alfaQuest based on both price and performance, and we haven't been disappointed."

Lynn can rest easy due to the reliability of the Violet FasTRAKs. "The design of the FasTRAK plate transport eliminates many moving parts which is always desirable. We image approximately 20,000 plates per month. With the low cost of Violet technology, we were able to install two FasTRAK production lines providing 100% redundancy for our operation."
FasTRAK Violet utilizes a field-proven opti-mechanical system for alignment and positioning, ensuring repeatability of ± 0.001 inches, for highest quality color registration. The design of the straight-through flatbed transport system has proven to be both very reliable and simple to maintain.

Nick Elliott, Production Director and Plant Manager for the Democrat-Gazette, remarks "The alfaQuest CTP equipment has improved every aspect of our plate making process. We are now twice as fast as our traditional negative process. Our quality has increased, most evident in our black and white halftones, and we produce a plate more efficiently than our previous system. We (the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette) haven't reverted to our old negative system since producing our first plate on the alfaQuest CTP's. We have been very pleased with the quality and consistency of our FasTRAKs."

The FasTRAK Violet CTP can image single or double-truck newspaper pages at 1016, 1200, 1270, 1524, 1800, 2032, 2400, or 2540 DPI. Rated at either 150 or 180 broadsheet plates per hour (at 1016 DPI), FasTRAK Violet CTP allows manual feed for small to medium sized operations or quickly connects to the 1,000-plate-capacity TRAKmate 2 autoloader.

John Lally, Vice President of Sales, alfaQuest Technologies, "FasTRAK Violet CTP has proven to be the best price/performance CTP available and is experiencing outstanding success in both the Private and Corporate Newspaper ownership sectors. We are as gratified with the success of FasTRAK Violet CTP, as our Customers are, with its price, capability, and attractive support options which combine to provide them with a very low Cost of Ownership."
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is part of WEHCO Media; a privately owned diversified Communications Company with interests in newspaper publishing, cable television, and internet. WEHCO Media operates 9 daily newspapers, 11 weekly newspapers, and 13 cable television companies in 5 states.