Saving Pennies
Computer-to-conventional UV platesetter technology drives 4-color production—at 40 plates per hour.
By Mark Vruno, Executive Editor -- graphic arts online, 5/1/2007
If, as U.S. printing patriarch Ben Franklin said, a penny saved is a penny earned, he must also have known that time is money. Penny Lane Printing, Avon, NY (about 30 miles south of Rochester), the $2.5-million publisher/printer of the Genesee Valley Penny Saver weekly newspaper, set an objective three years ago to reduce plate costs and speed output so it could afford 4-color on all its pages.
Most equipment manufacturers “were restricted to only a few plate choices,” notes prepress manager Pete Swanson. And, most CTP devices were slower than the 1997 Eskofot platemaker that the printer already owned. Penny Lane was looking for “the ability to use conventional plates sourced from many different suppliers [and] an increase in production speed to 40 plates per hour,” Swanson says.
CTP vendors were pushing the value of improved resolution—1270 dpi or more. The basysPrint UV-Setter, running at 900 dpi on conventional plates, delivered sufficient quality with no need to change processors. “There was no reason to justify the purchase of a significantly more expensive and complex piece of CTP equipment requiring the use of expensive chemicals and more expensive plates,” Swanson notes. The UV-Setter overcomes the problems of other CTP technologies, he adds. “You continue using your inexpensive UV-sensitive printing plates and your existing processor.
“We had two important goals from the beginning,” Swanson continues. The first was to have all the plates burned on the UV-Setter. “The second was to print all the Penny Savers in 4-color within 10 months.” By last July, both goals had been achieved—a milestone for Penny Saver publications.
In the pressroom, the company runs two rebuilt, 6-unit Royal Zenith Zephyr coldset webs, vintage 1979. In prepress workflow, it employs Kodak Preps 5.2 imposition software. The bindery houses two Muller Martini saddlestitchers along with a Muller inserter. For direct mail, Penny Lane manages databases with BCC Software (a Böwe Bell + Howell company) and runs a Kirk-Rudy W'inkjet Addressing System incorporating HP inkjet technology.
“The basysPrint UV-Setter exceeded our expectations in all areas: high-quality printing, spot-on registration, a huge reduction in consumables and a nearly 40% chemical reduction that benefits the environment,” says CEO Steve Harrison.
RIP systems export 1-bit-TIFFs ready for exposure, so the UV-Setter can be integrated into virtually any prepress environment. Installed at Penny Lane in early 2004, the 57-f model now runs 90% to 95% of the printer's 26.5×19.75´´ plates, according to Swanson. From Punch Graphix, the Series 5 UV-Setters are designed to expose four-up work and can be used for commercial, packaging and book printing alike. They expose all plate formats up to a 37×27´´ maximum.
Also, there's the minimal operating cost of the UV-Setter, with both plates and chemistry that are less expensive than with traditional thermal CTP systems. “In addition to the cost issue and having aging press equipment, we just didn't have the room for thermal,” Swanson adds. Of the company's 28,000 sq.ft. of space, only about 12,000 are dedicated to print production.
At the time it was bought 10 years ago, the older Eskofot platemaker suited Penny Lane's needs for 85-line screen work but couldn't hold 4-color capability. “We decided to look at various products that would address our need for a Computer-to-Plate process,” Swanson says. After evaluating eight manufacturers, basysPrint made arrangements for the Penny Lane staff to travel to Buffalo Newspress to see a UV-Setter in action.
“Another selling feature was the routine maintenance program that our employees can do themselves,” Swanson notes. “This includes cleaning the chiller unit, greasing the rail that the UV-Setter head slides on and, with specific training, changing the UV-bulb.”
After seeing the difference on the basysPrint device, says Harrison, “We were able to take on new work with old customers—with very little servicing. We put all of our 4-color commercial work on the UV-Setter. The outside sales department has brought in a lot of business with a wide variety of projects that maximize our production.”
For more details on the company and how Penny Lane got its name, read the online exclusive in this month's www.graphicartsmonthly.com.
ONLINE:www.basysprint.com, punchgraphix.com, graphics.kodak.com, mullermartini.com, kirkrudy.com, bccsoftware.com and gvpennysaver.com
