Kennesaw, Ga.--  Plate remakes are a thing of the past for Powell Offset Services, Austin, Texas, since the company installed a Heidelberg Suprasetter 105 CtP device. The new thermal device, which anchors a Heidelberg Prinect Prepress Manager prepress workflow, replaces an existing violet platesetter. According to company president Bobby Powell, it has vastly improved not only the company’s platemaking capability, but also the quality and consistency of its printed work. “The Suprasetter is absolutely marvelous,” Powell said. “The plates hold color and run clean - every plate is good – and I know my prepress operator enjoys not having to clean out the processor. This is trouble-free printing the way it ought to be.”
 
The new Suprasetter feeds Heidelberg Saphira Chem-free aluminum plates to all of Powell Offset’s Heidelberg presses: a 5-color Speedmaster SM 52 with coater, a 4-color Speedmaster SM 74 perfector, and a 6-color Speedmaster SM 102 perfector with coater. They are also a supplier of imaged plates to other shops in the area with Heidelberg presses. About 50 percent of the company’s job mix represents specialty printing that demands the kind of dot-for-dot precision the Suprasetter 105 is well equipped to provide. “It has to do with the way it develops the dots and the way the dot adheres to the plate,” Powell explains, “We are now very confident about accuracy because this system gives us better dot size. That is a huge statement when dealing with density-sensitive images.”
 
In business since 1955 and with 10 employees, family run Powell Offset has been a Heidelberg shop since the beginning. Its 6-color, 40” Speedmaster press produces about one-half million specialty-printed sheets per month, filling in with other commercial printing when the schedule permits. The company sticks with Heidelberg as its primary prepress and pressroom supplier, based on the superior service it receives when problems occur, as well as on the quality and reliability of Heidelberg hardware and software. “The equipment works the way it’s supposed to, that’s the bottom line,” Powell said. “Heidelberg is a partner we trust.”