Digital Printer Allows Market Expansion At US Firm

Ag Press has expanded the services it offers its customers following the installation of a Docucolor 240 digital printer from Fujifilm.

The US publications printer installed its first digital printer, which has also helped it diversify in to general commercial print, whilst maintaining some publications business.

One of the main services the company wanted to provide was the production of tear sheets in a more affordable way.

Ag Press said that many publishers provide their advertisers with tear sheets of the 8.5" x 11" magazine pages.

Now, with the size of the digital printer, the company can print from 100 to 500 sheets.

In addition, the company can provide its publications' customers with direct mail pieces to send to current and potential advertisers.

Ag Press was established in 1954 to publish a farm newspaper called Grass and Grain, which the company still prints and circulates through parts of three states, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.

The company is now primarily a commercial printer focusing on hobbyist publications and produces about 50 magazine titles, ranging in subject from flowers to railways.

Tom Carlin, Ag Press's general manager and production manager, Neal Bassett said they received encouragement and support from Fujifilm as it made the transformation to digital print.

Four years ago, Ag Press implemented Fujifilm's thermal eight-page Javelin Luxel T9000 CTP system.

The thermal platesetter, which is said to output 12 plates an hour at 2,400 dots per inch (dpi), feeds five presses and makes a few hundred plates a day on busy cycles.

For the four-colour plates, for the 26-inch x 40-inch press, the Javelin produces 100 to 200 plates a day.

Taking its first step into digital printing, Ag Press again turned to Fujifilm and installed the Docucolor 240 printer-copier that they said prints up to 40 pages per minute (ppm) in colour and up to 55ppm in mono with a 2,400dpi x 2,400dpi resolution.

The printer features a maximum paper size of 13" x 19" and outputs up to 110lb.

cover stock.

Before the advent of digital production at Ag Press the company was not able to produce business cards cost competitively, although it can now with a same-day turn-around.

Ag Press is producing variable data projects, in which it anticipates growth and the company has just produced 6,000 personalised postcards for Kansas State University.

The company also printed cards, including a job showcasing wildlife paintings by a local artist.

Tom Carlin commented: "We have been very satisfied with our first full year of production of the Docucolor 240.

It added to our gross revenue, which is more than USD5 million.

We are confident digital jobs afford us a higher profit margin than offset printing thanks to several factors, including the elimination of set-up, paper waste and proofing materials.

In our printing operation, the Docucolor 240 is primarily used for short-run colour, which would be cost prohibitive on our offset presses." He added: "When I started working here, we were still working with film and were spending hours of stripping on light tables.

With the help of Fujifilm, we were able to make these steps in to the digital world a little smoother.

It certainly made my life a lot easier because we were able to downsize our workforce in pre-press and the amount of work the Javelin CTP can perform in a day with no mistakes is pretty amazing." Carlin explained that the Docucolor printer is beneficial, although it does not replace work produced by the offset presses.

The digital system it allows Ag Press to do work it had previously turned down.

He said that he would often feel uncomfortable about the prices some of its customers had to pay for limited amounts of printing.

Now, with the quality of the digital press, Ag Press can provide good prices.

Carlin emphasised another benefit: "One of the things I find is how quickly we can turn round business cards for people.

With the digital printer the quality and the cost are both there, so we do an awful lot of business cards.

Even the artist was pleased with the quality." He also stressed that because the company takes pride in quality it would not have purchased the Docucolor press if was not satisfied.

If the quality has been significantly different from what Ag Press produces on the offset presses, he would not have bought the digital machine because customers would not have accepted the work it produces.

Neal Bassett added: "For the most part I think our timing in purchasing the Docucolor 240 was about right because we knew that we were going to have to be competitive in the digital market.

On an annual basis the printer pays for itself.

It's a good investment.".

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