NZ South Island printer 1st to embrace chemistry-free CTP

PrintHouse made the complete switch to CTP at the same time, installing an Acento S platesetter, the ApogeeX workflow, a Sherpa 24M proofer, and Sublima cross-modulation screening from Agfa.

Tony Woodall, general manager at PrintHouse, claims the Azura’s chemistry-free ability and environmental benefits was a major selling point for the company and the local council. “It has also brought our prices down,” he says. “There are additional costs with chemicals and film and we’ve been able to eliminate those.”

Woodall says the company is impressed with the quality secured by the CTP process, and is also pleased with the reduction in make-ready time. “We are processing a plate every six to eight minutes. Where previously it took two hours to get from disk to the press, now it is just 40 minutes – and with the plate register system, the time for make-readies is much quicker.”

Established in 1994, PrintHouse services mostly local businesses and produces a range of materials - from adhesive labels and business cards to full-colour brochures and books. The company has a variety of A2 presses and finishing equipment, with its medium-volume requirements suited to the Azura plate system, which provides 2-98 percent screen tints at 200 lpi with run lengths of up to 100,000.

Plates are imaged on an Acento S 32-channel external drum thermal platesetter, which can produce up to 20 plates an hour and provides resolutions of 1200-200 dpi and 2400-4000 dpi. The Acento also has separate loading and unloading bays and automatic inline punching, with quick production speeds and the simple plate process emphasised as a big advantage.