Pre-Press - Computer-to-plate

FUJIFILM will begin using methane gas from a local community landfill to power approximately 40 percent of its primary U.S. manufacturing complex in Greenwood, S.C. Through an arrangement with Greenwood County and Methane Credit, LLC, methane gas will be extracted from the landfill and piped into the Fujifilm complex, where it will then be used in two of the facility’s four boilers. The facility will use approximately 197 billion BTUs of methane-generated energy from the landfill per year—about as much energy used to heat more than 5,000 homes annually. By using the methane as energy Fujifilm is preventing methane emissions, which are 20 times more

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY—06/13/2007—Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) clearly increased both sales and earnings in financial year 2006/2007 (April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007). “For the fourth year in succession, we have been able to draw on the upswing in the global economy and the resultant upward trend in our industry,” stated Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. “For the current financial year, we are expecting moderate growth in the volume of business,” he added. Sales by the Heidelberg Group during the period under review climbed six percent to 3.803 billion Euro (previous year: 3.586 billion Euro). The fourth quarter alone returned sales of 1.214 billion

WHEN SOUTHERN Illinois University Printing/Duplicating Service installed a new Screen FT 3050 imagesetter in 1998, it was a big step forward. Gone were the days of shooting film. After nine years, though, time took its toll on the FT 3050. “It was a good machine. We were happy with it,” remarks Dennis Maze, superintendent of the 22-employee operation, in Carbondale, Ill. “But we had some problems with it a little over a year ago.” Error messages and the need for parts left the machine out of commission for days at a time—once for a full week. “So that’s when we decided to start

Getting film used to be, let’s say, a little inconvenient for the 13-employee Printing and Publishing department at Delaware’s Office of Management and Budget. For years the Dover, Del., in-plant had its film output by a commercial printer across town. “The film would come back to us and we’d strip it up and burn the plates here,” recounts Dustin Yerkes, shop supervisor. “For a job that we would have to send out for film, it could take a half day”—a whole day if that printer was busy. To eliminate this lag time once and for all, the in-plant recently installed a Heidelberg Quicksetter 300E computer-to-plate

When University of Alaska-Fairbanks Printing Services added its new Agfa :Acento II E thermal computer-to-plate device in the fall, it arranged to keep its Agfa SelectSet 7000 imagesetter around for three months, just in case the transition from film to CTP didn’t go well. “We never turned it on again once we had that platesetter installed,” reports Warren Fraser, manager of Printing Services. Nor has the in-plant looked back fondly even once on the film world it left behind. For one thing, the new platesetter has reduced dot gain and improved quality: “It’s rare that a plate gets rejected,” Fraser testifies. “It’s been really good.” For

Xitron, Inc., an independent developer and integrator of Raster Image Processors, RIP management software and workflow solutions, has been acquired by Vanguard Graphics International (VGI). Xitron was previously a part of the Agfa Graphics group of Agfa-Gevaert NV. It was acquired by Agfa as part of the company’s Autologic acquisition at the end of 2001. Vanguard Graphics is a privately held holding company specializing in acquiring and managing graphic arts companies that serve small to medium sized printers. VGI also owns Printware, LLC, a provider of computer-to-plate systems, and HighWater Designs, a company known for its line of RIPs and metal platesetters.

St. Paul, MN—March 14, 2007—Vanguard Graphics International (“VGI”) today announced its acquisition of Xitron, Inc., a leading graphic arts industry developer and integrator of Raster Image Processors (RIP’s), RIP management software and related digital workflow solutions. Xitron is headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI and markets its products worldwide. Vanguard Graphics International is a privately held holding company specializing in acquiring and managing graphic arts companies that serve small to medium sized printers worldwide. In addition to Xitron, VGI owns Printware, LLC of St. Paul, Minnesota, a leading provider of innovative prepress solutions focused primarily on polyester and metal based computer-to-plate systems and HighWater

A new Xanté PlateMaker5 is making life easier for Mario De Leon and his team at John Jay College in New York City. Gone is the smell of processing chemicals in this five-employee in-plant, since the new platesetter is chemistry free. IPG Editor Bob Neubauer visited this 10th Avenue in-plant recently and talked with acting manager De Leon about the shop’s transition to a computer-to-plate workflow. Plates from the PlateMaker5 are used on the in-plant’s one-color Itek 9510 and Hamada 600 presses, and De Leon reports improved quality and speed on its forms, letterhead and envelopes as a result. The PlateMaker5, he said, has

Fox Valley Technical College recently installed a Kodak Trendsetter 400 II Quantum platesetter. It will be used for both production and training of students. The Appleton, Wis., school’s in-plant operates around class schedules to maximize hands-on training. “For five years in a row our students have won the PIA/GATF Premier Print awards in the student category,” noted Drake. “No other school has ever won even two years in a row, and the training our students get on KODAK technology helps us achieve these excellent results.” The Trendsetter 400 II Quantum platesetter offers semi-automatic operation, easy maintenance and excellent imaging quality. In addition to

THE GRAPHIC arts market saw the need for industry standards and understood the growing XML (Extensible Markup Language) development when it supported the decision to create CIP4 (www.cip4.org). This association includes major equipment and software vendors in prepress, digital printing, offset and finishing. CIP4 created the Job Definition Format (JDF) as a standard way to exchange and understand job information. This process can begin to empower creative and production staffs to support an efficient manufacturing process. Tremendous efficiency can result from understanding the interdependence of each department. We largely still depend on paper-based processes that are isolated and disconnected with our current way