Product category:
Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: Presstek | Subject: Karat Plus DI press
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 23 November 2005
Music Industry Printer Opts For
Waterless DI Press
AB Dick has just installed the first Karat Plus DI press in the south east of England at GM Printing in Croydon.
AB Dick has just installed the first Karat Plus DI press in the south east of England at GM Printing in Croydon It replaces a two colour and a single colour Heidelberg GTO litho presses
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 5 Aug 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The first 46 Karat Plus DI press in the UK and the first in Wales has been installed by A B Dick at Seargeants Brothers Printers in Pontypool with assistance from Welsh Assembly Government.
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Following its recent exclusive agreement with KBA, AB Dick has installed the first small format 46 Karat digital imaging press at C and H Prototype in Teddington, Middlesex (UK).
"I just wish we had ordered it a year ago when we first saw it at the Digital Print exhibition 2004.
The business would certainly have benefited from it," said Graham Milton, managing director at GM.
"At that time we were considering a four colour litho press with a computer-to-plate system but once we saw the Karat we knew that a four colour DI press was far better suited to our type of work, as 90 per cent of our production is short run, full colour up to 2,000 units." GM Printing looked at a number of DI presses before placing an order with AB Dick.
Further reading
AB Dick's Linked Drupa Press And Plate Technology
AB Dick will be highlighting the automation of plate production at Drupa 2004.
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A.B Dick's Vector TX52 chemistry-free thermal metal plate setter helped to attract $2 million in orders at Drupa.
A B Dick Instals Its First KBA Digital Press
Following its exclusive distribution agreement with KBA, Today's Printers in London is the first high street quick printer to have a KBA small format waterless digital press installed by A B Dick.
Milton commented: "We took a complicated job to the AB Dick showroom, which was a solid with a fine tint in the middle.
We would have struggled to run it easily on the GTO but there were no problems on the Karat.
We also felt that as AB Dick really wanted the business and that the company would give us good after sales support, which has been proven." He added that GM has cornered a niche market in the music industry, producing four colour labels and promotional material for vinyl records.
And he continued: "There is still a buoyant market for vinyl records but they only produce them in small quantities.
Before we installed the Karat, we had to run two passes on the GTO press.
Make-ready was time consuming and we could not always guarantee the accuracy.
There are urgent jobs that we can now do in-house, which would have farmed out previously, simply because we could never turn them round in time." Milton added: "The commercial side of the business is is where we are promoting the environmental benefits of the Karat, which is chemistry free and uses waterless inks.
We've been able to de-register as a dispenser of hazardous waste.
We've also joined the Waterless Printing Association and have added its butterfly logo to all our stationery.
This is particularly important to some of customers, particularly those who are in local government and charitable foundations." In the past GM Printing was spending GBP2,000 a month on film but now it has reduced it to GBP200.
There are only two or three jobs out of a hundred a week that still require film and the company has dispensed with its imagesetter and buys in the film.
GM is also putting all the short run four colour work through the Karat, whilst long runs and spot colour jobs still go through the remaining two colour GTO.
"It is saving on expensive consumables like film, chemistry and paper that adds up.
AB Dick assured us that we would reduce our paper bill when we had the Karat but we weren't convinced.
We used to run about 250 sheets before we adjusted the colours correctly but now we only have to run about 35 sheets and that makes a big difference.
I am sure that digital is the way of the future and that is where we will be investing in the future," summarised Milton.
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