Processless Plates Keep Print Running After Storms

Faced with at least 10 days without water following severed storms that affected Gloucestershire (UK), print firm Severnprint was 'rescued' by Fujifilm's Pro-T processless printing plates.

According to Fujifilm, Severnprint was able to turn to Fuji's processless plate, which requires no water in production and the company was able to print normally during the time the company was without water.

Lyndon Murray, Severprint's pre-press manager, said: "Without Fuji's Pro-T plate we would have been facing a nightmare scenario.

We're an extremely busy printer and having to shutdown or outsource over a 10-day period would have been disastrous." He ecplained: "We had only recently installed Pro-T and our plan was not to put the plates in to full production until the autumn.

However, with no water, we had no option but to start using the plates immediately.

I'm delighted to say that the switch was absolutely hassle-free, without any quality issues and we were able to print normally throughout the 10-day period." In 1990, Severnprint became one of the first printers to develop an environmental policy, said Fujifilm.

Since then concern for the environment has been at the heart of its business plans and investment decisions.

It claimed to have been the UK's first commercial user of re-usable electricity in 1995 and, today it buys all of its electricity from renewable sources.

Over 60 per cent of all paper used by the company is recycled and Severnprint was one of the first printers to win ISO14001 accreditation and FSC certification.

Murray added: "Our decision to use processless plates was driven by our environmental policy.

By using Pro-T we are able to eliminate the use of water and processing chemistry and will no longer have to dispose of waste materials.

We calculate that Pro-T will help us reduce our water usage by 400,000 litres a year and chemistry usage by 2,000 litres." Founded in 1977, Gloucester's Severnprint employs 73 staff.

Its customers are mainly from the manufacturing and financial services sectors.

With a range of presses, the company can handle work ranging from single colour jobs to six-colour marketing materials.

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