Kennesaw, GA, - Dothan Printing & Litho, Inc. in Dothan, AL, recently augmented its prepress department with a Suprasetter A52 CtP device from Heidelberg. The new platesetter joins the company's existing Prosetter 52, but adds the convenience and low maintenance of chemistry-free thermal technology. Most important, said company president Tim Rhodes, the new platesetter enables Dothan "to run a little greener." While Dothan continues to use its Prosetter violet platesetter, it has transferred the bulk of its platemaking-an average of 800-900 plates per month-to the new Suprasetter, which anchors a Heidelberg prepress workflow with MetaDimension RIP and Signa Station imposition station. Dothan also uses Saphira violet and Saphira Chem-free plates in its platemaking devices.
 
Rhodes, who spent a portion of his career as a NASA engineer, recognizes Heidelberg technology for what it is: solid, sophisticated and reliable, so it's no accident that the company has been an all-Heidelberg shop almost from the year of its founding in 1961. Today, in addition to the two platesetters, Dothan operates a Speedmaster 52 4-color press and a Printmaster 52 4-color, 2/2 perfecting press, in addition to postpress equipment that includes a Stahlfolder B20 and two Stahlfolder T36 folders with right-angle attachments for pharmaceutical folding. In addition to Saphira-branded thermal and violet plates, the company uses Saphira pressroom consumables including blankets, inks, fountain and wash-up solution, packing materials and more.
 
Family run Dothan Printing employs a staff of five and serves a client base located within a couple of hundred miles of Dothan AL, with sales into Georgia and Florida. The general commercial printer takes pride in running "lean and automated," Rhodes said, the result of adding the right kind of technology at the right time. Of course the quality of the equipment is a given," said the former NASA engineer, "but service is a big reason Heidelberg sells a lot of equipment to small companies like ours. We'll be doing business with them for a long time."