Heidelberg has reinforced its entry into the packaging market, showcasing a range of products in its pre-Drupa press conference.

The company has announced platesetting devices and JDF-based Prinect workflow software tailored for packaging to complement its new Speedmaster XL 145 and XL 162 packaging presses.

The Suprasetter 145 and 162 models are aimed at the new XL presses, while a third 190 version will target even larger sheet widths.

The company claimed a throughput of 35 plates per hour at resolutions of 2,540 or 2,400dpi.

The thermal systems feature six cassettes in the plateloading unit capable of autoloading up to 600 plates.

They also integrate Heidelberg`s latest Prinect RIP version and the Adobe Print Engine. Customer`s can also add in plate on demand options, enabling plate production to be handled from the press control station.

The platesetters also hook into Heidelberg`s Prinect workflow platform which can now be used with industry standard MIS products from 20 vendors.

The JDF/JMF architecture offers a standards-based interface reducing maintenance for users and opening up the software for further collaboration.

The software can hold job data, press and prepress settings for future use and can extract data from production jobs for accurate and transparent costings and operation data.

Heidelberg will launch its first packaging version of the software at this year`s Drupa show in the form of Prinect Packaging Workflow.

The platform handles the entire life cycle of a packaging job, helping reduce wastage and human error as well as highlighting production costs.