Faster, faster

Marion Wilson mentioned that the speed of printing preparation is a key factor for small and medium-sized printers using CTP. Shorter and shorter live prints, coupled with quality control requirements and job schedules, have led more and more small printers to invest in direct-to-plate systems. Neil Handforth, manager of Ty-Offset Graphics, said: “These days there is always a direct plate display in the showroom because people want to see the whole process from manuscript to print. The speed of print preparation is now more important than the speed of the press. Because the installation of printing plates on modern printing presses has been automated, direct platemaking has become part of the preparation for printing.” John Walter, manager of Print Machine in Chichester, UK, said that many printing companies invest in the purchase of direct-to-plate equipment, mainly considering the needs of companies. Survive in an increasingly competitive market. This company began in 1985 and used Heidelberg Quickmaster and the new Liangming 3304HA printer to print the prints below SRA3. Recently, the Dick DPM2000 polyester direct platemaking system was upgraded to DPM 2340 two years ago, and four-color prints were printed with a polyester plate. He said: “We have installed semi-automatic four-color printing presses and also upgraded the direct plate-making system to achieve the best quality. A company must first have computer and document processing technology and then turn to the direct plate-making system. Our factory is already in the computer. On the typesetting, there is now a fully digital process flow. Most of our users have provided files on disk.” Their choice of the DPM2340 is based on price and specification. "The largest SPA3 plate is suitable for us. We do not plan to change to a larger format." He is quite satisfied with the combination of the current direct plate-making system and Yoshiaki's latest semi-automatic loading system: "It takes less than 10 minutes now. Four-color jobs can be installed and printing starts.” Claire Scott, production manager at Riverside Press in Ipswich, also felt deeply touched. This factory had already turned to direct plate making in March. This is due to the need to change the design of the company's corporate newsletter. It requires more color numbers, more light colors, more precise overprints, and finer network cables. Make the print cycle less than 3 days. "We can't rely on the platemaking center because we can't meet the deadline for publication. Now we get printed on the machine 10 minutes after we got the job via ISDN." From Mr. Handforth's point of view, the polyester version can handle 80% of the A3 printing market, but The metal plate is best used for prints printed at 15000-20000, and quality is an extremely important job. Clementine Oakley in Wembley, northwest London, uses a metal plate. It needed a new type of graphic recorder two years ago and later bought a direct plate system. They said: “We are a little worried about the first use of direct platemaking, but since we can image on the film, why can't we image it on the plate?” he used the screen company's system (1050 Flatrite platesetter and Axifa's developer ) Don't feel sorry. Mitsubishi's printing plate was originally used, but later, because of the delay in using Agfa's metal plate, there was no problem after a short period of time. Some companies need polyester plates and metal plates. When Bayliss Printing Design purchased the DPM2000 system from Dick in 1998, it has now upgraded to the DPM2505, a large B3 plate and A2 format film recorder. “The DPM200 was purchased specifically for low-cost special contracts. The new Model 2505 is a high-accuracy drum-type graphics recorder/printer with complete flexibility to output B3's polyester version online. The output format is SRA2's film so that we can choose the best output medium for job needs." The Bell printing factory in Bishops Stotford was optimistic about the direct platemaking system five years ago, but only the first system was installed until this year. The final choice was Screen Company and Taiga Process Software, primarily for the flexibility of producing metal plates for the seven presses (including three GTO machines and one five-color Speedmaster) in the factory. Although the direct plate-making system was only installed and operated for about 1 month, the production capacity has been improved, and there is not much mistake, because the proofing has been done on the plotter proofing machine. They said: "There are no dirty spots on the plate, it is also accurate, saving a lot of preparation time for printing." Another advantage is that it saves money on the film and returns it to the customer. The company to seize the opportunity to invest 250,000 pounds to establish a large digital prepress workshop, replacing the traditional platemaking department and the small prepress department. “In this way, we will not have the nightmare days when it is difficult to meet customers' prepress cycles when there is no prepress department.” Summary: The speed of printing preparation is more important than the speed of printing presses. Computer direct platemaking started the company's process flow. Increased productivity and reduced errors are also characteristics. Save the film back to the customer.