CTP Comes to Ole Miss
According to IPG data, almost 22 percent of in-plants have an imagesetter. Until last month, one of them was the University of Mississippi, which has been churning out film with a Screen Katana for years. The main reason the shop stuck with it?
“It was paid for,” laughs Tony Seaman, director of Printing and Graphic Services at the Oxford, Miss., shop.
But after building up some money in its replacement fund, the 17-employee in-plant finally decided to move ahead into CTP.
“The time was right, the funds were available, so we went out on bid,” he says.
Last month, the in-plant installed a refurbished Screen PT R4000 platesetter, along with a Xitron Navigator GPS RIP and workflow and Harlequin’s TrapPro trapping software. For proofing, the shop added a Canon iPF 8100 44? wide-format printer. This, combined with a new Phoenix laminator, will allow the in-plant to start offering posters and banners, which Seaman sees as a lucrative new business.
Before adding the CTP unit, Seaman consulted with in-plants around the country, trying to decide whether or not to use processless plates. He heard that these plates might have a shorter shelf life and that the coating on processless plates gets into the ink train on the press, requiring more frequent cleaning.
“We ended up not going with a processless plate,” he reveals. Instead, the shop uses Agfa’s Azura plates, which require a gumming and rinse step. But the chemicals the shop previously used to make plates are now gone, and for this Seaman is very glad.
“We’re a lot more environmentally friendly,” he observes.
Plus, the in-plant no longer needs to store film from old jobs. Seaman plans to get rid of all of it.
The CTP unit, Seaman says, should have a return on investment time of about 21⁄2 years.
The new Xitron Navigator GPS RIP and workflow is a big improvement, Seaman adds. The shop can now make hot folders, which saves a lot of time. Plus, now the same RIPed file can be sent to both the proofer and the CTP; the job is essentially put on hold while the client approves the proof, and then the file is sent to the platesetter. The in-plant now has a PDF workflow and no longer has to make separated PostScript files.
Despite making headlines over the past year for installing a Kodak NexPress and using Kodak’s Dimensional Clear Dry Ink, the Ole Miss in-plant remains committed to offset. Seaman notes there is still plenty of need for “static” recruitment materials and newsletters. And even though digital printing now makes up 60 percent of the shop’s work, he says, “offset’s not going away.”
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
