The commercial printer in Airdrie will produce plates in both B2 and B3 format from the equipment, which cost £76,000.

Managing director Jim Robertson said the Suprasetter A75, which runs off an Agfa Apogee workflow, can output 16 Heidelberg Saphira chemical-free plates an hour.

"Dual loading allows manless output of up to 50 B2 or 100 B3 plates overnight for uninterrupted production or up to 200 0.15mm plates if just one cassette is loaded," he explained.

The Suprasetter replaces a Screen FlatRite PF-R 1050 CTP system and will run alongside an existing Agfa Acento thermal CTP to handle plates for spot-colour work at the 18-staff company.

Robertson said plates for the PF-R 1050 equipment were no longer available so he was forced to buy another system.

The new CTP joins a Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74-10-P, a B2 long perfector, and two B3 presses, a Printmaster PM 52 and Printmaster QM 46, already at the company, which produces magazines, brochures, leaflets, stationery, annual reports and point-of-sale material at the 930sqm factory.

"We have a reputation for quality and an eye for detail and we can retain that but increase our productivity with this machine," Robertson added.