Plates to order

When Gail and Greg Herlin, wife-and-husband owners of GH Printing, went shopping for a platesetter at a recent Graph Expo show, they sought one that could accommodate all their different plate sizes. This was a complex prerequisite, considering that their 22-year-old company in Downers Grove, IL, has a wide selection of presses, ranging from sheetfed offset to heatset half-webs and coldset Didde webs.

The mix of equipment is the result of a merger four years ago, when Greg rolled another company, Diamond Web Printing, into the GH fold, creating a combined firm with 60 employees running three shifts. Together, the two facilities account for annual sales of more than $10 million, printing books, postcards, flyers, catalogs, inserts, coupons and POP items.

Situated a block away from GH's 12,500-sq.ft. building in suburban Chicago, a separate 34,000-sq.ft. operation houses two heatset half-webs—a Harris M110B and a Hantscho Mark VA—and a full bindery. Down the street, GH's sheetfed pressroom features a 4-color 19×25½´´ Heidelberg MOV-HP perfector; a 2-color 13×18´´ ABDick 9850 and two 5-color Didde webs. Between the six presses, there's quite a variety of plate sizes.

The Herlins looked at all options, including thermal and violet plate systems, which they deemed too expensive due to the investment in new plates with new chemistries, processor and post-baking oven, not to mention extensive set-up costs, maintenance and space requirements. What they bought takes “a 10×10´ footprint and we're done,” says Greg, company president. Notes CEO Gail, “Our goal was to use our existing conventional plates rather than going with a piece of equipment that would require us to make an expensive investment in a new style of plate.”

“The basysPrint UV-Setter from Punch Graphix was the only unit available in the market that accommodated all of our six different plate sizes, from 12×18´´ to the largest 24×30´´,” says Dennis Cederborg, GH production supervisor, “and also provided us the capability of imaging multiple plates during one cycle.” Although the Punch Graphix CTP platesetter is UV-sensitive, it digitally images on conventional plates. The prepress workflow at GH is now 100% digital.

“Since the basysPrint doesn't require a change in the existing plate or chemistry, its integration in our prepress workflow was almost seamless and extremely cost-effective,” adds GM Tim Lakawitch. With a conventional platesetter, adds Gail, “We provide better and faster service—and being fast gives us an edge.” The platesetter enables GH to accomplish a seamless approval and delivery process on time-sensitive projects, consistently making customer deadlines. “Many customers are looking for faster response times,” she continues. “We can do same-day-printing with the basysPrint UV-Setter without any problems. We can be on press within 15 minutes.”

GH Printing had a 30% to 40% savings on the purchase price alone vs. a thermal system—and no need for the expensive, heat venting floor-to-ceiling exhaust installation. An additional value-added feature is the environmental friendliness compared to other technologies that involve multiple bath processors with harsh chemistries.

Another reason for ruling out thermal plate systems was run length. GH Printing has many runs over 1 million impressions. “You don't want to stop and restart heatset web-fed presses, and you don't want to prepare four make-readies on each job because thermal plates are rated for approximately 150,000 impressions,” Gail notes. “We already had great experience with our Fuji FNX plates for long run lengths . . . . The basysPrint UV-Setter fit perfectly into the picture.”

Cost of operation is relatively low, thanks in part to low power consumption and few parts subjected to wear. There are no high-powered lasers or diode bulbs to buy—the UV light source is inexpensive and easy to replace. Each lamp's operational lifetime is about 2,000 hours.

The UV-Setter's flat-bed system and advanced control software make it easy to use, and “basysPrint provides a four-day training commitment to its new customers,” Gail points out. Prior to its arrival, GH had two full-time employees making about 50 plates per shift. “Now, we have one full-time person making over 100 plates a shift,” Lakawitch reports. In one extraordinary day last month, 450 plates were imaged. Output like that led Greg to deem the machine “a real profit center.” The model installed at GH features a single exposure head; a double-headed version also is available.

“We go straight-to-plate, totally eliminating film,” which can attract lint and dust, especially while burning fine screens. The vacuum-type design burns dots directly into the plate, resulting in better clarity. “We realized additional cost savings in the form of less plate remakes due to film-related issues, improved registration that reduced our paper costs and improved quality,” Gail says.

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