Cutting the Chemistry in Canada

Boyd Cranford knew the quality of his in-plant’s work would likely increase once it installed the new four-up Kodak Magnus 400S platesetter. But it wasn’t until the shop reprinted a job it had done last year using plates from the Magnus that he saw the improvement with his own eyes.

“The difference was just amazing,” enthuses Cranford, manager of Printing Services at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in St. John’s. The customer, he adds, was “ecstatic with the change. The image is just so much clearer, being first generation.”

The 28-employee in-plant opted to use Kodak chemistry-free plates with the four-up CTP system, becoming one of the first printers in Canada to go this route, Cranford says. Plates don’t even need gumming—the process of applying a thin coating of gum to a plate’s non-printing areas. Doing away with chemicals not only cut costs, he adds, but it was very appealing to the university.

Quality and environmental friendliness haven’t been the only improvements the Magnus has brought. Plates now take just five minutes to image, so productivity has greatly improved.

The in-plant ordered the Magnus in November, with delivery planned for December or January, but demand has been so great across Canada that the unit didn’t arrive until March. The shop also got an Epson Stylus Pro 9800 wide-format printer for proofing, along with Kodak’s Prinergy Evo workflow software.

So far, the only drawback the in-plant has found is that the processless plates show only a very faint image, Cranford says. This initially concerned the press operators, who look for that image when loading plates, but it has not proved to be a real problem.