Kennesaw, GA - The in-plant print department of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) may not make the trains and buses run on time, but it does print the schedules, brochures, training manuals, flyers, posters and forms on which millions of riders rely to get where they're going, when they need to get there.

A typical job for the 30-year-old MARTA in-plant involves printing between 12,000 and 16,000 two-sided bus and rail schedules at a clip, according to an unforgiving production timetable. Because time is of the essence in fulfilling its charter, the facility recently installed a state-of-the art, 2-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 74 perfecting press to ramp up the productivity of its pressroom, along with a Stahlfolder USA B30 continuous-feed folder and a POLAR 92X paper cutter to insure its bindery could match the output of the new press. "Our bindery doesn't slow down the workflow anymore," reports Jim Morgan, Supervisor of Reprographics.

According to Morgan, state-of-the-art automation and user-friendly digital controls have made all the difference to his operation. "All three machines work hand-in-hand to make us more productive than we've ever been," he said, adding, "Not only can we meet tight deadlines, but we're often ahead of schedule," giving the shop's eight employees some unaccustomed breathing space between jobs. In the wake of the installations, press makereadies have shrunk to between five and 10 minutes, thanks to the automated wash-up and blanket cleaning features of the Speedmaster 74, which also delivers substantially better quality and sharper detail than the aging single-color press it displaced. Likewise, both the Stahlfolder B30 and POLAR 92X cutter are characterized by easy setup and high productivity output. The shop uses a variety of Heidelberg Saphira consumables, including blankets, packing, fountain solution, wash-up solution and wash-up cloths.