Prepress
Danish Newspaper Publisher, Sjaellandske Medier, reduces paper waste 5-7%.
Friday 25. September 2015 - Sjællandske Medier A/S goes back to 1871 and since then it expanded based on several mergers between a number of regional newspapers. Sjaelland, also called Zealand, is the largest and most populated island, located in the south-east part of Denmark. Today the company employs 500 people covering most of Sjælland with offices in 28 cities, publishing 4 daily newspapers (Frederiksborg Amt Avis, Dagbladet, Nordvestnyt, Sjællandske) and 32 weeklies. Furthermore they diversified their business by having an advertising agency with various online services, running a local radio station and making TV productions.
Factory Manager Niels Grinsted is relying on the Agfa Graphics service and support team to keep the plate making and printing workflow optimized: ‘their quick response time and professional knowhow regarding different aspects of the printing workflow such as experience with plates, gum and fount, has contributed to improve our final printed results. We use an Arkitex Newsdrive workflow to control our CtP system which consists of two Advantage N engines with online Clean-out units, imaging on N94-VCF chemistry free plates.
One year ago we decided to start using the Antura Fount CS1, which is a perfect match for the N94-VCF plates.’ This was the conclusion of an Agfa Graphics f-IQA report (Fountain ISO Quality Assesment), based on the analysis of six distinct water samples from their fountain setup installation: tap water, de-mineralized water, re-hardened water, fresh fountain solution, used fountain solution and the fountain additive. The f-IQA is one out of a set of six IQA modules which will become commercially available in due time. In the end this resulted in an optimized fountain solution setup, meant to work in combination with different paper types and variable run lengths of 2.500 to 250.000 copies. A good and stable fountain solution setup strongly determines the final print quality on press. Niels Grinsted commented: ‘The Antura Fount CS1 helps to keep the blankets clean while printing and it reduces our start-up paper waste by another 5-7%. Meanwhile we are also using other pressroom products from Agfa Graphics such as Xtrawash Plus 60. This blanket wash reduces oxidation and swelling of the rubber blankets. We also use the RC611 hardener in combination with the Antura Fount CS1 which increases the plate production stability.’
Recently we adopted the new Attiro clean-out unit which further benefits our ecological footprint and further increases the overall prepress cost savings based on reduced usage of chemicals and subsequent savings on waste disposal. The Attiro applies a three step cascade gum flow in combination with a water top-up mechanism.
This improves the clean-out efficiency of the Agfa Graphics violet chemistry free technology.
The gum consumption, needed to clean and protect the N94-VCF plate, is further reduced by 75% and the overall waste by 17%. This also had a positive impact on our maintenance schedules which were cut back with 50%. We are proud to announce the ecological benefits of these improvements to our customers.