Pressroom
Miami-Dade County Fills A Tall Order with Suprasetter 74 Plus Prinect Workflow
Thursday 04. November 2010 - The print facility serving Miami-Dade County in Florida reports the installation of a Suprasetter 74 Thermal CtP device with Heidelberg Prinect workflow including JDF-based Prinect Prepress Manager prepress workflow, Prinect Pressroom Manager and Prinect Digital Print Manager, which controls and monitors the workflow for the shops offset and digital print output.
The facility recently completed the printing of 2,460,280 ballots for the mid-term election. These are made up, explains Graphics Services Manager Steve Schmuger, of 431 different types of multi-page ballots printed front and back for each of the countys 827 voter precincts, produced 3-up and die-cut inline on a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74 2/2 perfector at 15,000 sph. “Heidelberg equipment not only is reliable,” Schmuger said, “but it can do things other equipment wont.”
Once printed, the three-up press sheet moves to a POLAR 115 XT cutting system with Compucut, Jogging System and Transomat-E stacker. Mail order ballots for absentee voters go to a specially equipped Stahl folder that verifies each ballot, folds, slits in-line, and sends three streams to a Speedbander 603. Each stack is banded and labeled, packed in cartons, barcoded, and sent to the Election Department for mailing. Its a tall order with multiple moving parts, Schmuger readily admits, while acknowledging the critical role played by Heidelbergs JDF-based automation and workflow components, part of a complex network of integrated systems that enable just 20 employees to prepare and produce reams of complicated ballot materials on an unforgiving schedule.
The Suprasetter 74 with single cassette loader runs virtually hands-free, for enabling the operator to perform a variety of other prepress tasks. The Miami-Dade facility, which prides itself on meeting stringent environmental standards across its operation, also uses Heidelberg Saphira Chemfree plates and assorted low-VOC pressroom chemicals.