Litho-laminate and label printer Lithotone, Inc., upgrades its prepress department with a new Screen (www.screen usa.com) PlateRite Ultima 32000 VLF platesetter (above) and Screen Trueflow 3 PDF/JDF-based workflow. The Elkhart, IN-based converter has imaged all of its plates, large and small, on VLF platesetters for more than 10 years.

“We had been happy with the previous VLF system and digital front end,” says Eric Delio, prepress manager. “But once we saw the capabilities of the PlateRite Ultima and the speed of the Screen prepress workflow, we decided to investigate a whole new workflow solution.”

With dual-feeding capability, the Plate-Rite Ultima allows imaging of two standard-size plates simultaneously. Lithotone's fully automated system with twin-head configuration can output up to 46 plates/hr. By comparison, the system it replaced produced eight plates/hr, a difference of 575 percent.