Product category:
Printing Pre-Press Systems and Materials (Repro, Platemakers, CTP, Workflow, Document Management, Design Software, etc.)
News Release from: Kodak Graphic Communications Group | Subject: Thermalnews plate
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 01 December 2004
Newspaper Switches To CTP With Thermal
Plates
The UK's Cumbrian Newsprint, part of the CN Group, has switched from conventional platemaking to CTP, having invested in Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) Thermalnews plate.
The UK's Cumbrian Newsprint, part of the CN Group, has switched from conventional platemaking to CTP, having invested in Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) Thermalnews plate A £700,000 investment at Cumbrian Newsprint's Carlisle site includes the creation of a new pre-press department, the purchase of two thermal CTP platesetters, two KPG Mercury News plate processors and punching and registration equipment
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 1 Aug 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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"The implementation of CTP, outputting thermal plates, has had a massive impact on our ability to produce plates faster, with more accuracy and with greater efficiency.
The sharp dot generated on the Thermalnews plate provides a consistent high quality, while the plate is ready to go through the Nela punch-bender the instant it comes out of the KPG processor.
In addition the plate is very clean, resulting in reduced processor maintenance and a more environmentally friendly operation," said Graham Stephenson, operations manager at Cumbrian Newsprint.
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"We spent more than a year researching the market, carefully examining different output technologies and plate types.
In the end it became clear that advances in the area of thermal imaging, particularly in terms of throughput speed, have made this a viable option for newspaper printers.
If the benefits we have already experienced are anything to go by I would say that an increasing number of UK newspaper groups will begin to look at thermal technology as a viable method of producing plates for their presses," he added.
Cumbrian Newsprint is a long standing customer of KPG and had been using the company's negative working Winner Gold plate, which was produced conventionally at the site.
The Carlisle plant prints around 1.5 million newspapers each week, about 40 per cent of which are its own titles such as the Cumberland News, Whitehaven News and the Times and Star, plus the daily News and Star.
Contract printing includes editions of The Sun plus other weekly and periodical work.
Graham Stephenson continued: "Within four days of delivery of the platesetter equipment, which was easily interfaced to our IPA Printxpress front-end system, we were producing Thermalnews plates ready for press.
Our print runs range from 10,000 to more than 100,000 and as the Thermalnews Plate will print more than 200,000 impressions we've had no problems at all in producing either our own titles or our contract work." Cumbrian Newsprint operates a 128 tabloid page KBA Comet press with 96 pages of colour in collect mode, which is soon to be extended to provide 128 pages of colour.
The company operates its presses 24 hours a day, getting through 3,000 panoramic plates a week.
"Any newspaper printer will tell you that reliability is vital in our business and we are extremely confident about the Creo platesetter equipment, the Thermalnews plate and the after sales support we've received.
Our sister site in Barrow-in-Furness is now looking carefully at our successes here in Carlisle and may well be the next UK newspaper site to tread the thermal plate path," commented Stephenson.
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