Truprint Media Upgrades with Prepress UK Kit

Truprint Media, Margate, has announced details of an upgrade to its pre-press department with new software and hardware provided by Prepress UK, the pre-press specialists based in Brighton. The upgrade follows previous enhancements installed by the same supplier back in 2014.

That investment has served the business well, but this summer their studio equipment was starting to show its age with problems on their graphic design Macs, with an early version of Enfocus PitStop Server for pre-flighting, and a nearly full NAS storage system.

After a remote pre-press audit Prepress UK were able to recommend moving their Adobe Creative Suite applications to new custom built, high-specification PC’s along with a new file and pre-flighting server, with double the RAID storage, running the latest Enfocus PitStop Server 2020. 

During a review of their processes by Andrew Aldridge, Technical Manager of Prepress UK, unnecessary steps were identified and eliminated providing an additional boost to productivity.

Truprint Media Managing Director Anthony Underwood, commenting on the new solution, said: “We are delighted to be working with Andrew and Nic at Prepress UK again. It’s vital to the smooth running of our business to have our systems audited by professionals, who are then also able to update our pre-press equipment to the very latest technology.” 

Commenting on the work undertaken, Andrew Aldridge said: “While the printing industry has long had a love affair with Apple computer equipment, there’s no doubt that since all the required applications are available for Windows 10 you can achieve greater performance, and so greater longevity from your investment, for less with a Windows platform.

“With regards custom building all our PC platforms, it’s been Prepress UK’s policy for many years now that saving a few pounds on PC hardware is a false economy. You invest tens of thousands in CtP or hundreds of thousands in printing presses, why would you connect those devices with a £500 off-the-shelf PC with cheap components? For a few pounds more we buy high-end branded components and build platforms specifically tailored for our industry, with built in RAID drives, the latest PCIe solid-state system disks, fast RAM, tenth generation Intel Core processors, all combined with a 12 month on-site warranty at no additional cost, along with an additional 12 months parts only and, in the case of hard disks, a minimum of three, and usually five, year warranty.

“We’ve provided similar upgrades to a number of other customers around the country this summer. I would strongly urge printers to conduct their own systems audit. How old are the various components, and are there any elements of the system causing a bottleneck? We are happy helping people recover from a disaster, but wouldn’t it be better for your business if we could be helping you to avoid one?”

Commenting on the system improvements Anthony Underwood added: “With a highly competitive marketplace, speed improvements and reliability of a pre-press system are essential! With the new system productivity has been greatly increased. It gives me peace of mind knowing that our pre-press is fully up to date, faster and with plenty of storage, with a secure back-up in place to keep clients artwork accessible for as long as is needed.”

About Truprint Media

The business was established back in 1982 as Truprint Litho. Rebranded as Truprint Media, this highly experienced team of printers and graphic designers provides a total design to delivery print service for customers in Kent and beyond. The business has a great reputation and is well known for its friendly service; swift, creative ideas; speedy quotations incorporating affordable pricing; quality printing; and fast delivery. 

Work focus incorporates the typical range of commercial printing, including full colour stationery, leaflets, brochures, newsletters, point-of-sale print, calendars, directories, folders and so much more. The company prints via conventional offset litho for medium to long runs and digitally for short runs, and offers an extensive range of specialist finishing, utilising state-of-the-art file to print technology and both on-line and hard copy proofing. The company is run by a team of directors: Managing Director Anthony Underwood and Works Director Martin Gibson The company employs a total of 24 employees across pre-press, printing, and post-press.

About Prepress UK

Prepress UK is an independent developer and supplier of printing hardware and software. The company is able to provide significant experience and a professional and reliable approach to solving print production problems. Based in Brighton, UK, the company provides specialised software solutions backed by an unparalleled personal service from initial enquiry through to post-sales support. Prepress UK develops and supplies cost-effective device-independent prepress workflows; CIP3 pre-press and press integration systems; JDF press reporting systems, as well as colour management expertise.

See the www.prepressuk.com and www.pressprofiler.com websites for more details about the company.

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Jaymar Packaging Adds New Plate Production

Jaymar Packaging Ltd, Crewe, has announced details of an upgrade to its B1 pre-press system by purchasing an Agfa Avalon N8 engine to take over from its existing Screen PT-R 8000. The machine was purchased from Dennison Group who then sub-contracted Prepress UK to provide a pre-press audit, software upgrades, and calibration of the company’s two manroland R700 B1-format printing presses.

Roy Milner, Managing Director of Dennison Group, commenting on the installation, said: “With spares becoming ever more difficult to obtain for the Screen unit, we were delighted to be able to assist long-standing customer Jaymar. The refurbished Avalon is the ideal CtP solution for this busy packaging business.”

Dennison Group has been a long-term pre-press partner for Jaymar, and its relationship with Prepress UK, independent suppliers of software solutions for pre-press and print, also goes back a number of years. 

Commenting from Jaymar’s perspective, Gary Marsh, Production Director, said: “At Jaymar we pride ourselves on working to exceptionally short lead times. With our ageing Screen unit we could see potential issues in the future should the CtP fail. We tasked Dennison Group to find us a newer CtP in order to prevent any delays for our customers. We went for the “belt-and-braces” approach by installing the Agfa unit alongside the Screen unit giving us both reliability, capacity, and back-up.”

Prepress UK’s first task was to ensure that the pre-press computer systems were up to the job of serving files to this very high-speed Agfa CtP engine.

After remotely auditing the existing system, Prepress UK recommended two Xitron RasterBlaster Pro systems – these provide intelligent, organised plate production to virtually any pre-press workflow, regardless of manufacturer. This software was installed on Prepress UK custom built, high-end, Windows 10 Pro PC’s incorporating RAID1 hard disk plate archives to ensure total system back-up. 

These systems have then been linked to the latest Xitron Navigator 12 Harlequin RIP, again running on a bespoke Prepress UK built PC, eliminating older, unsupported computer platforms that were both security and failure risks to the company, as well as performing well below current standards.

Commenting on the upgrades, Andrew Aldridge, Technical Manager of Prepress UK, said: “With regards to custom building all our computer platforms, it’s been Prepress UK’s policy for many years now that saving a few pounds on PC hardware is a false economy. You invest tens-of-thousands in CtP and hundreds-of-thousands in printing presses – why would you connect those devices with a £500 off-the-shelf PC with cheap components? For very little more money we will buy high-end branded components to build platforms specifically tailored for our industry, with built in redundant drives, the latest PCIe solid-state system disks, fast RAM, tenth generation Intel Core processors, all complete with a free 12-month on-site warranty.”

As part of the audit process Jon at Jaymar identified pinch points in the pre-press file preparation that added unnecessary complexity to their processes, so during installation Prepress UK were able to implement changes to accommodate a simplified pre-press process, allowing jobs to more easily be repurposed between the two manroland printing presses.

After the CtP and pre-press installations were completed, dot gain calibration of both printing presses were established and fed into the system to allow Jaymar to move further towards its desired ISO 12647-2 colour standards.

Regarding print quality issues, Jaymar’s Gary Marsh added: “Being able to turn jobs round quickly on its own is not enough to secure continued custom. Here at Jaymar we are heavily focused on quality. By calibrating both CtP units and finger printing both presses for UV inks and conventional inks we feel we are in a strong position to maintain and improve our reputation for best quality print within the industry.”

About Jaymar Packaging

Established in 1977, Jaymar Packaging Limited is a privately-owned company which specialises in designing and manufacturing bespoke carton board packaging solutions for a wide range of SME and blue-chip industries. Operating to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001:2015 standards, the company prides itself on offering a high standard of service and quality which is reflected by the stable customer base and the number of referrals it receives.

For further information see http://jaymar.co.uk

About Dennison Group

Dennison Group overarching USP is the company’s ability to understand our client production requirements, then supply suitable and affordable products with ongoing maintenance packages, a must in today cost sensitive environment.

Whether it’s the lasted technology in automated CtP systems and associated software to industrial inkjet printing and finishing equipment from many of the industry’s leading manufacturers, the Dennison Group team has the knowledge, the expertise and the tools to optimise overall equipment efficiency, reducing downtime and enhancing productivity.

See https://www.dennisongroup.co.uk for more information.

About Prepress UK

Prepress UK is an independent developer and supplier of printing hardware and software. The company is able to provide significant experience and a professional and reliable approach to solving print production problems. Based in Brighton, UK, the company provides specialised software solutions backed by an unparalleled personal service from initial enquiry through to post-sales support. Prepress UK develops and supplies cost-effective device-independent prepress workflows; CIP3 pre-press and press integration systems; JDF press reporting systems, as well as colour management expertise.

See the www.prepressuk.com for more details about the company.

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Third Booklet Making Finishing Unit Added at HDC

Inchinnan, Renfrewshire-based HDC (Homework Diary Company) has announced its third installation of a PowerSquare^TM 224 booklet maker. This latest machine is an offline Morgana PowerSquare^TM 224VF, complete with high capacity dual bin feeder. The machine was sold by Canon UK, an authorised dealer of Morgana offline and Plockmatic inline finishing units.

HDC produce a wide and versatile range of high-quality printed book products for the educational market. These include both student and teacher planners, personalised exercise books, and primary and secondary yearbooks.

The first of the finishing machines installed at HDC was a Watkiss branded hand-fed offline unit some five years ago; the second, two years ago, was installed by Canon in an inline configuration, integrated with a VP6250 digital printing machine. This third unit, now branded Morgana, is again offline but with its own high-capacity feeder.

Commenting on the latest addition, Robin Clark, Managing Director at HDC, said: “Whilst the inline unit has been a great success, the latest Morgana PowerSquare 224 with the VF feeder can be much more efficient and more versatile in an offline configuration, where it can handle the output from two or three of our mono and colour Canon presses. This will allow us as a business to be much more productive – which can be critical for our especially busy periods, such as before the start of the new school year.”

The PowerSquare™ 224VF booklet maker, with its high-capacity dual-bin feeder, offers a flexible solution for a wide range of booklet types and sizes. The system is fed by the VF vacuum assisted feeder which has a loading capacity of up to 540mm / 21″, giving long uninterrupted production runs. 

Pre-collated printed sets can be placed into both bins for longer runs, or covers can be placed into one of the bins when they need to be merged with collated sets. The feeder can also be loaded on the run with automatic bin switching. Optional barcode readers can be fitted to the VF for variable page count jobs or to ensure set integrity. In a single machine the PowerSquare 224 combines the four processes of stitching, folding, spine forming, and trimming, to produce SquareBack™ books of up to 224 pages thick.

Commenting further, Robin Clark added, “We know the robustness of the unit and could appreciate the productivity of having it installed as an offline system, so we didn’t need to look anywhere else before we made our choice.

“Canon have been our supplier of choice for many years, so it was easy to deal with them regarding the latest order. The machine build of the finishing units has been excellent. The reliability of the finishing products has been exceptional, and the unique square-back finish that they produce really helps our products to stand out.”

Another of the unique feature of the PowerSquare 224 is that is can add up to six staples in one printed set, meaning that smaller format products can be printed and finished two- or three-up, increasing productivity significantly. The proven SquareBack process produces a superior quality of finish, delivering professionally finished booklets.

About HDC

Explaining the HDC business, Robin Clark said: “HDC has been working with schools for over 21 years. Throughout this time, we have continually developed products that are relevant in an ever-changing educational landscape. We always aim to give our customers the best products, at the right price, whilst delivering a service that exceeds all expectations. 

“This has been our under-lying philosophy from the day we started trading in 1997 and we are even more focused and driven by this belief today. Our team’s rich experience in working with today’s modern school environment is unrivalled and each member of our team is committed to our customer charter.”

HDC was one of the longest serving “Preferred Suppliers” of ASCL (Association of School and College Leavers), have been partners of School Leaders Scotland for over ten years, and more recently have been a commercial supporter of Schools North East.

Further information at https://hdc-uk.com/hdc/

About Plockmatic Group 

Plockmatic Group develops, manufactures and markets an extensive range of document finishing systems sold under the Plockmatic and Morgana brand names. These products work inline or offline together with the world’s best digital printing systems. 

Plockmatic and Morgana make products to mail, fold, crease, perforate and bind documents with extraordinary precision, turning stacks of printed paper into the beautifully finished documents for your customers every day. 

About Morgana Systems Limited

Morgana Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Plockmatic International, a part of the Plockmatic Group. The company supplies a wide range of innovative and market leading offline post-press equipment for customers involved in the many and varied activities of the printing industry throughout the world. Equipment is manufactured at a number of Plockmatic owned plants across the globe. 

The sales, marketing, and service operations of Morgana Systems are headquartered in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, UK. This site is also the manufacturing base for the PowerSquare range of booklet makers engineered by Watkiss, another Group Company. 

Beginning with the launch of the revolutionary AutoCreaser in 2000, Morgana Systems has led the way in developing new and innovative solutions to cope with the special requirements of the digital printer. Since its acquisition by Plockmatic in 2013 the product portfolio has been extended with a wide range of bookletmaking systems to meet every production requirement.

Current product ranges include the Morgana DigiBook range of PUR perfect binders, and the recently introduced collection of bookletmakers, which have been developed jointly with Plockmatic. These include the BM3035/3050 and BM5000 models, and the Watkiss developed PowerSquare^TM 160 and 224 models, all delivering market-leading, cutting edge binding solutions.

Morgana Systems is a preferred offline finishing partner for all of the leading manufacturers of digital print engines, whilst the Plockmatic International produce a wide range of innovative inline finishing solutions for all leading engine providers. 

Full details of Morgana’s product line-up can be found at: http://morgana.co.uk/

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