UK carton converter Boxes GH, part of the Clondalkin Group, has invested £300,000 to turn its manual plate making department into a state-of-the-art pre-press facility with Artwork Systems software, RIP technology and new thermal CTP plate output equipment..
“We knew that the investment had to be made but it was still a big cultural change,” says Phil Ashcroft, prepress manager at the plant in Great Harwood. “Staff had been used to film output, with the repro element handled by outside trade houses along with the production of CTP plates where customers have requested this for their work. To move to a completely digital environment needed, above everything else, suppliers that were going to help us along each step of implementation.
“This is one of the reasons we went to Artwork Systems. We hadn’t used its products before but we had heard of its reputation and obviously ArtPro is the standard prepress production software for the carton industry. The support it has provided has been tremendous.”
Boxes GH has installed NexusImport, NexusProcessor and NexusRIP facilities plus one seat of ArtPro. The NexusRIP is the RIPping and screening engine of the Nexus workflow and is said to be one of the most versatile RIPs on the market today, able to output to a huge variety of output devices. At Boxes GH, it has been linked to an Epson 9800 for proofing and the new CTP unit, which outputs plates for the company’s MAN Roland 600 and 900 presses.
“It’s still early days for us but all the hardware and software has worked extremely well and within a very short time the benefits have been enormous,” says Phil Ashcroft. “For instance, it could easily take one person an eight hour shift to handle stepping and plate making for a six colour job, whereas now this is completed in a fraction of the time. Automating so many repro functions such as step and repeat and trapping has resulted in very high accuracy and Artwork Systems was extremely quick at tailoring its software for our particular requirements.
“Bringing plate making in-house is saving about £10,000 a month,” he reveals, “and we’re currently analyzing the saving being made by not having to use outside repro houses. In addition, we are supplying higher quality plates to the pressroom, which reports faster makereadies, lower wastage and better print quality from the first generation dots on the plates. Everyone’s working conditions have improved significantly by eliminating the chemicals and manual part of the job.”
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