Taking The Direct Route

Adast is poised to debut a new DI product, geared toward in-plants. The 500 series will be a 15x201⁄2˝ press that uses poly plates and a take-up reel, similar to the Quickmaster DI 46-4 plus.

"Because it's all automatic, you can change all five plates in the press in 20 seconds," explains David McMaster, managing director of Adast America. "The plate cylinder itself declutches from the drive train so it can spin without the press rolling, and then we spin the plate cylinder at 22,400 an hour while we're imaging, and we image standard resolution jobs in two minutes and 20 seconds. So what that means is that in three and a half minutes you can be done imaging and plate changing on a five-color press, and then start printing at 200 sheets a minute." This comes out to 12,000 sheets an hour.