Thermal Platesetter Helps Digital Print Expansion

Extended digital printing facilities that include a Platerite 6600S thermal platesetter and SAL autoloader from Screen followed expansion after a number of business acquisitions by Redlin Print.

The Screen equipment is part of a digital print systems investment programme that has also seen the installation of a Xerox Igen and XMPie software.

Redlin Print found its plate-making facilities needed reviewing to keep up with an increase in output.

The company, which owned one Heidelberg six-colour perfecting press and two GTOs, bought a further two machines as a result of one take-over, including two SM74s and it needed to enhance its pre-press department to meet the extra demand.

Currently processing Kodak Electra Excel plates but as a thermal machine, Redlin's new Screen Platerite is designed to image processless plates as part of a chemical free production.

Redlin is currently reviewing the carbon footprint of all the methods it employs across the board and because of that drive to operate a more environmentally-friendly business, it is working towards being able to switch to a processless operation.

Those advantages include increasing efficiency by omitting the need to set the image and the reduction in the costs associated with buying and disposing of the hazardous developing chemicals required for manual film and traditional CTP plate production.

Tim Hann, pre-press manager at Redlin, said: "We have been working with Screen's Trueflow workflow for a number of years and were very happy with the 12 plates per hour imaged on our existing Platerite 4000E model.

However, our lithographic department has now grown to such a size since the expansion that we needed to trade the system in for a faster, higher-spec system as soon as we could." He continued: "Our workforce has always worked well with Screen's pre-press technology, so it was, therefore, only natural to stick to Platerite's tried and tested technology by upgrading to the 6600S.

The Platerite 6600S alone has increased our plate output to 30 plates per hour, yet, thanks to the SAL autoloader, we are able to comfortably reach our new plate-making target in order to maximise productivity on our litho presses.

This is because the SAL autoloader allows us to leave the system running into the night in order to produce a further 100 plates unmanned." The company's marketing manager Emma Cappello added: "Through a series of strategic and technological developments, Redlin has experienced a phenomenal boost to its growth in recent months.

The company is eager to confirm its position as a leading printing company in the UK, by installing state-of-the-art equipment in order to offer only the best service to customers and finding ways to adopt a more ethical and 'greener' approach to business.

Our recent investment with Screen supports both of these objectives and we are looking forward to looking at other ways, such as processless plate-production, that will further boost our environmental credentials." Redlin print was established in Essex in 1978.

It now operates from two sites, at Chelmsford and Basildon and employs 70 staff.

As well as offering pre-press, digital and lithographic output, the company also owns a finishing department.

Customers are mainly UK businesses in the energy and retail industries, from small to medium-sized local firms, as well as a number of public sector establishments.

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