Sun Chemical's System Boosts Heatset Printers

Sun Chemical, the world's largest producer of printing inks and pigments, said it is receiving an enthusiastic response from customers keen to adopt its recently launched ISIS programme.

Sun Chemical, the world's largest producer of printing inks and pigments, said it is receiving an enthusiastic response from customers keen to adopt its recently launched ISIS programme.

ISIS is one of a range of systems designed to help printers exceed their targets for quality, productivity and profitability, said Sun.

It is a series of programmes, products and services designed to assist heatset printers in achieving the maximum in print quality and press productivity.

It is made up from a number of progressive sections, starting with basic benchmarking of the print process before gradually fine tuning processes to increase productivity.

David French, general manager of Sun Chemical's UK offset division, said: "It is critical for printers to ensure that their productivity and efficiency are maximised.

At Sun Chemical, we aim to be the partner of choice and can draw upon years of experience and a global network of expertise to solve our customers' most demanding problems.

ISIS is just one way we can demonstrate our added value as a supplier and deliver value to our customers, in addition to world-leading products." Colin Norgate, Sun Chemical's UK director of value services added: "We are delighted that our customers see the value of initiatives like ISIS as key ingredients to further improving their businesses." The ISIS programme firstly focuses on the effective, consistent delivery of ink, so that customers will be assured that their orders will be delivered on time and in full, and that they will be of a consistent and stable quality.

Sun Chemical's heatset technical support personnel provide service, in which key running parameters of a company's individual presses, including press chemistry (fount performance monitoring) and press conditions (inkand fount roller, blanket and chill roller temperatures, for instance) are measured, and actions recommended to optimise press operation.

The company's Sprint programme is a range of training and teaching initiatives designed to help customers get the most out of their staff and machinery.

It includes a press simulator course, where printers can run a virtual press to learn how to troubleshoot a variety of problems, as well as tailored training courses to meet individual customer personnel needs relating to ink and printing and related products.

The Sprint Academy provides a new modular course aimed at students who wish to learn more about web offset printing and which can lead to a foundation degree diploma.

When the process has been stabilised through the technical audit and tailored training has been completed, the Sun Chemical team can start fine tuning inks and the customers' choice of print supplies and their utilisation.

This includes assessing fount solutions and silicones, for instance, to maximise the potential efficiency.

The total cost of print element is a programme where Sun Chemical's technical personnel, which includes former heatset printers, monitor the performance of a press over a three-week period to assess levels of waste, downtime and overall press productivity.

Following this, improvement opportunities are identified and projects are proposed and implemented with customers, said the company.

Sun's Printeasy Productivity System, or PEPS, is a new concept that provides the potential for total control of workflows and cost efficiency through a tailored modular software and hardware package, said the company.

PEPS not only allows customers to control their costs, but it can allow them to actively reduce them, claimed the company.

According to the company, unlike its competitors, PEPS is custom-built to individual customer specifications.

The modular system covers three key areas - workflow, printing and paper - all three of which mean PEPS is a valuable tool for optimising workflows and process management.

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