Platesetter And Process-Less Plates Justify Risk

A.B.Dick UK has installed a Presstek Dimension 400 platesetter at The Riverside Printing Company in Reading.

A.B.Dick UK has installed a Presstek Dimension 400 platesetter at The Riverside Printing Company in Reading.

The company took the opportunity to invest in CTP when it brought its pre-press, press, finishing and administration together under one roof.

"We had been looking at CTP systems for some time and when we had to move the pre-press department to another building, it was the right time to leave the Hercules imagesetter behind," said Steve Titmuss, Riverside's pre-press manager.

As well as being a commercial printer, Riverside also specialises in printing book covers and jackets for publishers and book printers.

"We do a lot of make readies because the average run length is short.

That is where we anticipated that a CTP system would get the jobs to our two five colour Speedmaster presses more quickly.

We had envisaged buying a system with an engine, a bridge, a processor and a stacker, which, due to its size, would have taken up most of the room in our new prepress department," explained Titmuss.

During Riverside's deliberations it received a cold call from A B Dick who told the company about the Presstek Dimension with its process-less plates.

Titmuss continued: "Initially I wasn't convinced.

When ablative plates first came out, they didn't get a good press and I thought that the running costs could be prohibitively high.

I was persuaded to have a demonstration and went rather grudgingly to see what it could do.

I was looking at a CTP system and a washer, which together were not much bigger than the size of three washing machines.

Instead of taking up virtually the whole of our pre-press department, they could sit in a corner." The process-less technology involves no chemistry to buy, to store or to pay for its disposal, and no processor to maintain.

It is a clean process.

The washer does not need plumbing in and all the user has to do is to wash the Anthem plates with water.

Riverside worked out that while the Anthem plates were more expensive to buy than thermal, if it took into account the savings on chemicals and the savings in staff time, the running costs were only marginally more over a year.

"We run this department with very few staff and so anything that could save manpower was important," added Titmuss who felt at the time that he was going out on a limb recommending the Dimension 400.

"There aren't that many installations in the UK and that is where I relied heavily on A B Dick to support us through the learning curve, which they have done admirably.

Their handholding has been brilliant.

As well as being there to train us, they were also on site when we went into full production and I can always speak to somebody knowledgeable on the phone." The Dimension is being driven by a Rampage RIP, which was installed to drive the Hercules.

It has a one-bit TIFF option to send the file to the Presstek PC ready for exposure.

"One of the best things about the Dimension is its predictability.

We know that whatever is on the plate, it will take the same time to expose and we also know that we donût have to spend time cleaning them up.

Although I don't think we are producing better quality plates, the fit is much better.

The more people know about the benefits of the Dimension, the better because more installations can only help to bring down the price of the plates," said Titmuss.

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