Direct to Plate at Last

Winner of the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association’s coveted Management Award, Washington State University Publishing was one of the first in-plants to receive FSC chain-of-custody certification. The Pullman, Wash.-based shop was among the first to add a digital color press when it installed an HP Indigo 3050 five years ago. But one bit of ’90s technology the 58-employee in-plant still held onto was its Heidelberg Hercules imagesetter.
“The system was still working fine,” explains Steven Rigby, director of printing. Still, there were difficulties.

“Film was getting harder to find,” he admits. Plus, parts for the 12-year-old system had to be ordered from Germany.

So last fall, at long last, the in-plant entered the direct-to-plate world. It installed a new four-up Fuji Dart 4300E computer-to-plate (CTP) system. Life hasn’t been the same since.

“Our spoilage has gone way down, our productivity has gone way up, our makereadies on our press are faster,” lists Rigby. “Our turn times are very, very short.”

The quality the in-plant gets from its two-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 74 and other presses has also improved.

“Our dot gain has dropped significantly,” he notes.

In addition, the new CTP system allows the in-plant to get by with fewer employees, after a few recent retirements.

“We replaced the employees with technology,” Rigby says. “So we’re able to get the same amount of work done with one less employee.”

The in-plant had been planning this upgrade for several years, Rigby reveals, and it added a Rampage RIP three years ago in anticipation. Though the Fuji Dart platesetter is not chemistry free, Rigby notes that “it’s still environmentally friendly.” Plates require only a water wash to remove the gum, and that water—once diluted—can go down the drain. He says the system passed an Environmental Health and Safety assessment with flying colors.

This wasn’t the in-plant’s only upgrade. In November, at the end of its five-year lease, the shop replaced its five-color HP Indigo 3050 with a six-color Indigo 3500, with SmartStream workflow management. The two extra color units allow the in-plant to print both WSU colors, crimson and gray, which will help bring in more jobs. The shop is now printing all university business cards on the new digital press, which can handle a larger sheet size (12.6x18.7˝) than the 3050.

Both the 3500 and the CTP system were installed in the same room. To keep humidity levels at 50 percent, the in-plant added a humidification system.

“To get the optimal use, we thought this was a good way to go,” Rigby says.