After meeting ISO standards in printing unofficially for many years Blue Star in Victoria decided it was time to use its press supplier’s qualification to make it official.
According to Neil Pratt, prepress technical support manager in Victoria, Heidelberg’s certification delivers an independent assessment on processes and officially verifies the site is printing to the international standard.
“We’ve been printing to the ISO standard for the past six years and are confident our processes are robust, but until now we’ve never been independently assessed. Heidelberg is qualified to undertake official ISO audits and we felt it worth our while to attain official certification,” he said.
Heidelberg’s ISO certification service is dedicated to the print and proof processes and focuses in particular on achieving reliable print results by combining state-of-the-art technology. The press manufacturer helped Blue Star Victoria achieve ISO12647-2 Graphic Technology - Process control for the production of half-tone colour separations, proof and production prints.
Having all parts of the process, CtP, proofer and printing press in proper working order and adjusted for best performance is essential for certification to succeed, said Dierk Wissmann, product manager for prepress. “ISO requires that both proof and press sheets conform, within tolerances, to the values specified in the 12647-2 standard.”
Pratt pays tribute to Hanno Van Dyke who worked closely with the team in the certification. “He is the key colour management specialist, and knows our processes inside out. We achieved a ten out of ten result in our final assessment which is gratifying for everyone involved,” he said.