Product News - May 2003

Alliance Laundry Systems LLC introduces the rotating double buck Empress, which offers the benefits of both a cabinet shirt machine and a sleever, the company reports. Teamed with Ajax collar and cuff presses, the rotating double buck Empress has the ability to deliver shirts at a rate equal to a traditional three-piece shirt unit at a lower entry cost. It features an integrated double blower system, on-board air filter, regulator, lubricator, vacuum bucks and porous air bags. It also incorporates flat heads and bucks, and cuff grippers with automatic release.

Patti Andresen-Shew . 800-228-AJAX . ReaderLink #100

AmeriComm announces the introduction of Traffic Builder, a new software program designed to assist retailers with strategic planning and implementation of marketing plans. This system allows AmeriComm to supply advertisers and direct mailers with an easy-to-use program to study their competition, manage special events and grand openings, analyze new locations and plan marketing campaigns. Traffic Builder provides users with the ability to graphically view and manipulate the intended market. Its mapping system can create customized polygons and integrate demographics at the carrier route level. Proprietary customer information can be added for a complete

analysis of current and potential customers. Additionally, Traffic Builder provides a method to create mailing panels using AmeriComm's complete list of every household in the United States.

Heywood Girion . 908-232-3800 . ReaderLink #101

Artlandia Inc. introduces Artlandia SymmetryWorks 2, a new version of its Adobe Illustrator plug-in for pattern design, which provides a computer-aided design (CAD) solution for creating repeated seamless patterns. Given the motif, the plug-in immediately constructs the pattern and then automatically updates it when the motif elements are edited, the company reports. Also new with this version are "replicas," live copies of the original elements that the designer can move anywhere in the pattern, possibly with arbitrary rotation, reflection and scaling, without restrictions imposed by symmetry. Another new feature allows the user to build arbitrarily complex patterns with one click by using "layouts" that remember all the vital parameters of the pattern, including its repeat size, position, scale and orientation of replicas. The plug-in comes with a variety of built-in layouts and lets the user add new ones. The new version also ensures a proper pattern orientation and features other productivity enhancements, including streamlined export to Web browsers, textile CAD programs and conversion of Artlandia patterns to regular Illustrator patterns.

Igor Bakshee . 217-355-4672 . ReaderLink #102

Avery Dennison Printer Systems announces the release of the Avery DennisonT AP 3.4 label printer designed specifically for on-demand desktop labeling applications. The AP 3.4 employs direct thermal/thermal transfer technology to most 1D and 2D bar codes, graphics and human-readable copy at a maximum print speed of six inches per second and print resolution of 203 dpi. The nine-inch-high printer has a small 12.3- by 8.6-inch footprint. The AP 3.4 has a variety of applications, including shelf and price labels, shipping and receiving labels, compliance labels, pallet labels and work-in-progress tickets. The printer handles label media up to 4.3 inches wide and up to 0.01 inches thick. Print width is 4.25 inches.

Mark Hansinger . 215-728-8028 . ReaderLink #103

Checkpoint Systems Inc. announces the release of Liberty, a family of radio-frequency electronic article surveillance (RF/EAS) antennas. Liberty incorporates two-way communications capabilities and is driven by Checkpoint's FR digital signal processing technology. The Liberty family (QX, PX, GX) operates at the standard 8.2 MHz EAS frequency and may be switched to operate at the alternate EAS frequency, 9.5 MHz. Liberty also has CheckBaseT and CheckPro ReporterT, for two-way communications. CheckBase is a stand-alone unit that initiates voice alarms, captures alarm activity from the system and tracks alarm events at each antenna. CheckPro Reporter supports automated alarm analysis and generates reports for detailed analysis of alarm events from multiple store locations using any computer on the retailer's network, in-store or remote.

Glenda Laudisio . 800-257-5540 . ReaderLink #104