The firm installed its first, a B1 Xcalibur 45 in June 2002, which has since delivered more than 70,000 plates. The new platesetter, which represents a 750,000 investment, is an Agfa Xcalibur VLF.

Polestar Wheatons managing director Bob Brown said that additional plate production capacity was needed to meet the firms plan to shorten schedules.

Weve got an established relationship with Agfa so the Xcaliburs are a natural progression of that. We looked at what would be the best technology for the business. The way the B1 has performed means that we were right, said Brown.

He added that Agfas Plate Manager had helped create a fast and responsive plate line, and its workflow was flexible enough to output to a number of machines including the Grand Sherpa proofer.

The 150-employee firm, which is part of Polestars speciality products division, produces more than 200 academic journals a month, as well as B2B directories and catalogues.

Story by John Davies