Irish Stationery And Card Printer's Presstek CTP

Lantz Stationery, the Irish manufacturer of wedding stationery and the biggest printer of charity Christmas cards, has installed a Presstek Dimension225 Excel CTP system.

Lantz Stationery, the Irish manufacturer of wedding stationery and the biggest printer of charity Christmas cards, has installed a Presstek Dimension225 Excel CTP system.

The installation was handled by Pressstek's Irish distributor, Andrews Graphics.

The Presstek CTP system has given the company total independence, whereas previously it relied on an outside repro house to output film from Quark files.

That process took three days to complete, prior to conventional platemaking.

Paul Hughes, a director of Lantz Stationery, said: "When our repro house told us that it wasn't going to stop film output because we were one of only two customers left still requiring film, we had to move quickly.

In the space of six weeks, we made a decision, placed the order and Andrews Graphics installed the Dimension platesetter.

It goes without saying that the future is CTP.

As our litho department has a Heidelberg Speedmaster CPC 2000 perfector and a GTO press, we naturally looked at their CTP system but it required a lot of plumbing," Mr.Hughes recalled.

"That is where the Dimension scores.

It has so many advantages.

To begin with, it's a totally independent, machine with a small footprint.

Most importantly, it uses chemistry free Anthem plates.

As well as being environmentally friendly, they take away the cost of buying chemicals and the hassle of disposing of them.

It's also a very simple process.

The operator drops the plate in, the Presstek Dimension images it and then he rinses it through a small water wash unit." The company introduces two to three hundred new designs a year and fifty new Christmas cards.

"We pride ourselves on being able to produce everything in-house except our invoice and order books.

Quality is very important to us but at the same time, cost of production is essential.

Our litho and digital systems have to be economical to run," Paul Hughes emphasised.

He also explained: "We estimated that it would take ten to fifteen minutes to put an Anthem plate on press and get it running to full production but, it only takes two to three minutes, which is a great time and cost saving." Cards, which carry the same image on the outside and the inside, such as Mother's Day and Valentine cards, are printed on a four colour digital press, also supplied by Andrews Graphics.

All the inserts and flat cards are printed digitally whilst the remainder are printed offset litho, said the company.

"If a card goes out of stock, we can put it back in to stock within days, which would have been impossible before we installed the Presstek Dimension225," Paul Hughes pointed out.

"My only regret is that we didn't invest in one ages ago.

It is the only way forward for any small to medium size printer.

It has given us total independence and independence is very important to us." Lantz Stationery started as a commercial printer 29 years ago and found niche in wedding stationery.

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