SunDance Graphics Maximizes Uptime & Throughput with Heidelberg’s Lifecycle Solutions and Full Suite of Products

Voted Florida’s best printer, SunDance Graphics located in Orlando, Florida continues to benefit from its close partnership with Heidelberg Lifecycle Solutions. Combining consumables with digital and technical services, Lifecycle Solutions has substantially increased SunDance Graphics’ profits through digital transformation in the press room. Additionally, this unique combination of products and services has helped extend the lifecycle of the company’s Heidelberg equipment, which includes a Suprasetter A 106, a Speedmaster CD 102-6+L, a Versafire CP digital color press, and two POLAR 137 high-speed cutters, which are integrated with Prinect workflow and run using Heidelberg Saphira Consumables.

“Being a Lifecycle customer is a huge benefit because Heidelberg is invested in us,” said JohnHenry Ruggieri, Managing Partner at SunDance. “It’s unique – most vendors just want to sell us a machine, but Heidelberg is equally invested in us running efficiently, which allows us to focus more on our customers’ needs than the production of the machine.”

Through Lifecycle Solutions, SunDance receives monthly conference calls and a yearly on-site evaluation with a Heidelberg Performance Advisor. The monthly calls review progress on KPIs (key performance indicators) and recommend, in months when goals are not met, steps for improvement. In the annual visits, Heidelberg specialists evaluate processes and operator performance and deliver a detailed report on what they find to management.

“They keep us in tip-top shape,” said Ruggieri. “Heidelberg guarantees that our machines are running at peak productivity. If they aren’t, they help us implement strategies to get us where we need to be. It’s a partnership and guarantees that all our machines are performing with industry-leading standards.”

Suprasetter A 106 and Speedmaster CD 102 – Doubling Business with Less Labor
To start off the production workflow, SunDance has a Suprasetter A 106 CtP device (using Heidelberg Saphira Plates), which fully automates the loading of plates directly from the Dual Cassette Loader with slip sheet removal, imaging, punching, and plate stacking. Holding 110 plates of each press size, the Suprasetter eliminates manual hand-punching with to the internal punching system, which also maximizes registration accuracy.

“The Suprasetter has dramatically impacted our workflow at SunDance with significant labor savings,” said Ruggieri. “Our press team queues up the plates from their console, and the plates come out the other end. The plates are able to go straight to the Speedmaster CD 102 – with only the press operators working on it.”

Installed over 5 years ago, SunDance Graphics’ chose the best-selling Speedmaster CD 102-6+L as the company’s primary offset press. Running at speeds up to 15,000 sheets per hour, the CD 102 provides flexible processing of a large variety of jobs and materials. Delivering up to 40 million impressions per year, the easy-to-use CD 102 offers short makeready times and an attractive price/performance ratio – maximizing the profit potential of its output.

“In the last five years, we have doubled our business and stayed to 2 shifts thanks to the CD 102,” said Ruggieri. “Between the press and our performance meetings, we are continuously growing in output, and we see higher uptime on this press than on our older presses.”

Single Solution through Entire Production Flow
Another contributing factor to SunDance’s uptime is their choice to exclusively use Saphira Consumables, which are extensively tested by Heidelberg for optimum production in a variety of environments. According to Ruggieri, “With Heidelberg’s Saphira Consumables, we know we just have one person to call. If there is an issue, they take accountability and find the best solution for us. They are providing an entire solution through a single point of contact.”

With the full Prinect workflow also in the facility, SunDance has fast and reliable job processing and data presetting. The company is minimizing makeready times, energy consumption, and paper waste with the state-of-the-art press and prepress automation. Additionally, SunDance uses Prinect Color Toolbox, the industry’s leading color management software – giving them ability to match color across both offset and digital platforms, which they use with the CD 102 and their Versafire CP.

Printing at 130 pages-per-minute, the company’s Versafire is producing digital work quicker than ever before– exceeding the quality and applications of competitive machines that are double the price. According to Ruggieri, “The Versafire CP has fulfilled all of my expectations. It’s a key part of our digital workflow, and we are so happy with it.”

POLAR Cutter – Reliable Postpress Solution
SunDance’s most recent purchase was two POLAR 137 high speed cutters equipped with POLAR Compucut Software, which integrates with Prinect. Thanks to the Pressroom Manager, the company can scan a barcode and automatically set up the job on the cutter allowing the company to find new ways to save labor. According to Ruggieri, “We went from having two shifts to one shift because of the technology on the cutter.”

The POLAR 137 with Compucut Software offers shorter makeready times and faster cutting efficiency with maximum precision to increase profitability. According to Ruggieri, “We’ll continue to purchase POLAR cutters because they never go down. We are a one press shop, so we need all our equipment up and running to remain profitable. Luckily, Heidelberg makes reliable equipment, so we don’t have to worry about going down. However, we know that if we have an issue, Heidelberg is only a phone call away and will be out to help by the next day. That’s why we’ll keep partnering with Heidelberg in the years to come.”

From left: Cris Bucheli and JohnHenry Ruggieri of SunDance with their Versafire CP.