Victorian printer makes :Azura part of its environmental plan

Agfa's new :Azura plate system, launched to the Oceania region at Pacprint, is already being used in nearly 200 printing sites around the world. Two Australian companies have added their print operations to this growing global list - Melbourne's McLaren Press has completed extensive trials and will begin full production shortly, while Lionheart Offset in Sydney has been running only :Azura plates since March this year.


McLaren Press (Melbourne, Australia)

Although McLaren Press is a long-standing family business, established in 1915 by the grandfather of current owner-operator John McLaren, it is far from being out-of-date. According to McLaren, the company is equipping itself for the environmentally-conscious future, and Agfa’s :Azura plate system is an important part of that process.

“We want to make a strong impact in Victoria as an environmentally-friendly printer,” he explains. “We moved to the :Azura plates because they are chemical-free. We are doing whatever we can on the environmental side of the business. We have installed water tanks to catch water for running our machines, and we use vegetable-based inks and varnishes. We are also looking at our air emissions now.”

Garry Muratore, Agfa Graphics Marketing Manager, pointing Steve Bracks, Victorian Premier, to the PacPrint banner identifying McLaren as an early adopter of the :Azura.
It is Victoria’s current water (or lack of) issues that lead to Victorian Premier Steve Bracks’ interest in the :Azura plate at last month’s Pacprint. Brack’s commented that “all Victorian businesses should be looking at systems that reduce water consumption” He offered McLaren press high praise in their envoronmental and water usage initiatives.

McLaren Press produces high quality single and multi-colour printing work for corporate, government and other commercial customers requiring large print jobs. Current production levels are around 5,000 sq. metres of plate each year.


Up until last month, half of McLaren’s prepress work was been film-based, created in-house using an imagesetter. The remaining fifty percent was produced externally as CTP plates. The company has now installed a new Agfa :Empower C system (:Xcalibur 45 thermal CTP utilising :Azura chemical free plates) After commisioning McLaren Press will take up full utilisation of the :Azura plates.

According to McLaren, the move to total in-house CTP production will provide substantial savings as the time-consuming film making process will be eliminated. The company has conducted extensive trials of the new :Azura plates, running up to 80,000 impressions with very good results. “We even ran the plates through again after two weeks in storage and they still inked up well with just as sharp a dot,” explains McLaren.

McLaren is looking forward to getting full :Azura plate production underway. After waiting almost 18 months for the right plate technology to come along he is keen to use it, now it is here.