High Speed PDF Demand Triggers CTP Upgrade

Colour Quest Group of Hemel Hempstead (UK) has fully upgraded its Dainippon Screen computer-to-plate and workflow with claimed productivity increases of 40%-50%.

Colour Quest Group of Hemel Hempstead (UK) has fully upgraded its Dainippon Screen computer-to-plate and workflow with claimed productivity increases of 40%-50%.

The decision to move up from the company's four-year old Screen Flatrite 1050 B2 visible light CTP and Taiga workflow system to the more sophisticated Platerite 4300 B2 thermal CTP and Trueflow workflow was driven in part by customer demand, said Colour Quest Group digital systems manager Terry Hawkridge.

"We had a massive requirement for high speed PDF throughput with over 70% of our work being supplied to us by our customers in PDF format - improvising solutions with the old Taiga system was time-consuming," commented Hawkridge.

With a new B2 five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 74 press joining the two Speedmasters already installed (Colour Quest's presses also include two Heidelberg Quickmasters and two HP Indigo digital presses) there was a further need to maximise workflow efficiency.

Trueflow is an automated pre-press production and control system that caters for standard file formats such as TIFF, PDF and PostScript.

The Platerite 4300 B2 thermal platesetter is claimed to deliver increased flexibility in format support and greater plate productivity with 20 plates per hour at 2,400dpi.

"We are expanding at a remarkable rate while in a generally depressed market.

Dainippon Screen CTP has enabled us to meet the demands of our customers and our presses from the word go - without it we would not be achieving the levels of quality, speed, efficiency and cost-effectiveness that make us competitive," added Hawkridge; ".

Colour Quest's key clients are major print management companies, who are keen to outsource best value print for their clients, which include leading financial institutions and car manufacturers.

"We are also planning to implement Dainippon Screen's SPEKTA screening technology within the next two to three months.

It's as easy to use as conventional AM screening, with the quality of FM screening.

That kind of technology will further increase our advantage over other companies by giving us a distinct competitive edge," said Hawkridge.

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