Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

Book Publishing, Inplants & Digital Printing - 3
November 15, 2007

In our last 2 episodes we started to discuss the difference between traditional publishing and self publishing. After a presentation to book publishers I trekked to Seattle for a inplant assignment. In this assignment I was working for a inplant library that supported several other local libraries with printing services.

Like many small inplants they had duplicator presses which required outside purchases to make plates as well as a slow color copier. Also like many inplants some of their equipment was so old that they had to get new parts manufactured or “machined”.

While I was there I met with some of their vendors to discuss equipment options. With one I asked them to look into buying a used imagesetter to make polyester plates. As often occurs in these meetings his eyes perked up when he realized that he was not talked to generic consultant with no industry experience and he said he may be able to get a used Agfa Avantra.

That was the expected reaction because as the computer to plate market has grown so has the availability of used imagesetters. What I did not expect is a phone call from him a few days later saying he found a used Quickmaster DI (Classic) that he could get for $40,000.

Wow! This was a surprise because it’s not unusual for a platesetter alone to exceed $40,000, but this is a waterless offset press with an internal platesetter. They say that if a deal seems too good to be true - then it probably is. I'm not sure who "they" are, but if true this may mean that this was one of the 2 color presses.

While support is a little more of a concern in a device that combines those technologies, and the Classic was not the most feature laded of all the generations of these devices, there are many small printers and inplants that have achieved  great success from these presses.

Posted by Howie Fenton on November 15, 2007 | Comments (0)