Oak Ridge, NJ: Beeline Color Center, located in Des Moines, Iowa, is no stranger to Cruse products. In 1994 Len Ainsworth, owner of DMB Imaging, Inc. (formerly Des Moines Blueprint, Co.) decided to open a fully-fledged color operation. He hired Steven Strooh, now Vice President and General Manager, to get Beeline started. Steven understood that the Cruse Camera would be the centerpiece in growing the color print-to-print copy business.
Always an innovator,
Steven (whose motto is, “good enough is not
OK”) was the first to use premium quality Ilfochrome materials in his Cruse
Camera. This attention to detail helped
him to develop a loyal, quality-focused customer base. When it came time to move to a larger, more
centrally located space, Steven realized that the time had come to replace
his beloved Cruse Camera with the latest generation of Cruse scanner.
In November 2000, Beeline
installed a Cruse CS 185/450 SL scanner. Capable of handling originals as large as 42” x 60” and equipped
with our Synchron lighting system, the scanner was running full time as soon
as the installation was complete. “Prior
to the Cruse Scanner install, we had been outsourcing large flat art scans
to a studio using a digital camera setup”, recalls Steven. “After the Cruse install, we realized that we could not only keep
the business in-house, but achieve higher quality scans as well.”
Faster scan turnaround
times, reasonable scan prices and high scan quality have grown Beeline’s output
business as well. Says Steven, “With
our Cruse Camera, we were limited to one size (of output) at a time, did not
capture a file and could only print on photo-sensitized emulsions.
The Cruse scanner opens up a world of opportunity for us.
We can output at multiple sizes on a variety of devices ranging from
photo to inkjet and burn files to CD for the client’s future use. The growth in output to my Fujix Pictrography alone required buying
a second printer.”
Beeline’s customers
see themselves as partners with the lab, and look to them for the latest in
input and output solutions. “We’re
on the bleeding edge of technology”, quips Steven. “Our rapid adoption of new technologies and products allows us to
stand out from our competition, and gives us increased credibility with our
customers. From their perspective,
we must be doing something right since we’re able to keep expanding our range
of products and services.”
While architectural renderings are the most common original imaged by Beeline, the flexibility of the Cruse scanner allows them to accept all kinds of jobs. Three-dimensional models, commonly used by designers and architects, simply cannot be imaged using conventional sheet fed reprographic scanners. The Cruse scanner allows Beeline to scan both flat and dimensional originals on the same equipment, maximizing both efficiency and consistency of file quality. But Beeline’s work is not limited to architects; Steven has scanned everything from tools for catalog work to an “industrial shovel” that a local artist incorporated into his work. Even the size of the scanner has not limited them; one twelve inch by fourteen foot architectural rendering was imaged in 3 sections and stitched together in Adobe Photoshop, further illustrating the versatility of Cruse scanners.
Cruse Digital Equipment is the US based arm of Cruse GmbH. Known for the legendary Cruse Camera, Cruse GmbH has focused research and development efforts on creating a line of premium-quality large format scanners. The resulting Cruse scanners can handle originals as small as a 35mm slide, and as large as 5’x8’. Cruse scanners are in place at such locations as the Beethoven Museum in Bonn, Germany; Lucent Technologies in Orlando, FL; NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX; and industry-leading photo and repro customers such as Rieger Communications and Beeline Color Center.
For additional information
on the Cruse scanner product line, please call Cruse Digital Equipment at
(973) 208-7289, or e-mail kurt.ernst@crusedigital.com