Tacony Sews Up CTP Deal
When your company is one of the leading makers of sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, floor scrubbers and ceiling fans, you tend to generate a ton of product literature—which means your in-plant goes through lots of plates.
The five-employee in-plant at Tacony Corp., in St. Louis, was spending close to $100,000 a year to have plates produced by a neighboring vendor. And despite the close proximity, it usually took one or two days for the shop to get plates back.
So last spring, Tacony purchased a Screen PlateRite 4300 thermal platesetter to supply its two- and four-color Heidelberg presses. According to Kristi Humes, vice president of sales and marketing support, it has brought more than just cost and speed benefits.
"You can tell a huge difference in the vibrancy of colors," she says.
Chris Davis in the prepress department agrees.
"It just is a lot crisper, a lot clearer—a lot sharper," he lauds. The in-plant looked into both thermal and violet CTP, Davis says, and decided that thermal yielded a sharper dot. His shop has experimented with stochastic screening on the new unit, using the variable-sized dots on a brochure for a line of vacuum cleaners.
"People seemed to really notice the images in that, how [much] sharper and cleaner that they looked," he says.
Having CTP capabilities has hastened turnaround time at the in-plant too, he says.
"It has greatly improved our production here," Davis affirms. This is rather important due to the volume of brochures, spec sheets, postcards, direct mail pieces and product instructions the in-plant prints daily.
As for cost savings, the company expects a fairly quick ROI.
"We're going to see a two-year payoff on the equipment," Humes says.
