CTP - Computer to Plate
Stewarts moves and makes way for two new presses and Suprasetter
Wednesday 12. March 2008 - Stewarts of Edinburgh has moved 25 miles to new freehold premises in Livingston at the same time as investing in a new Speedmaster CD 74-10P and Speedmaster SM 52-4+L Anicolor. These will be fed by a new Suprasetter H74 thermal CtP System.
The move has enabled Stewarts to relinquish an older three floor factory in favour of a single level facility with 40% more space and four high racking. About 80% of staff have transferred across to the new 37,000 sq ft plant.
All its finishing and direct mail equipment has been transferred and customers of this high class commercial printing company have suffered minimal disruption. Stewarts is a well a established and forward-thinking company which offers design, print and digital media, office supplies and print management services.
It is planning to increase turnover from £7m to £10m in the next three years, with direct mail and a move into the higher end market driving this project. Selecting the right equipment to make that happen is critical.
“Colour reproduction and consistency is the crucial success factor in the top end of the market,” says operations director Kenny Murray. “It is for this reason we have specified ImageControl for the long perfector. It is the best colour control system on the market.”
The CD 74-10P enables Stewarts to put work through, applying five or four colours and a seal to each side of the sheet in one pass. The long perfector maximises output and in-line sealing means work can be finished very quickly, keeping response times sharp.
Mr Murray is extremely excited by the Anicolor which fulfils the companys commercial and environmental requirements.
“The colour consistency and the volume and diversity of work it can produce in a shift cannot be bettered by any other machine on the market,” he says. “We will have no minimum run because we will even use it for wet proofing. With such low start up waste this is viable. Its turnround times, cost and environmental credentials gave it a total proposition that made it an irresistible buy.”
Both new presses will be Prinect Prepress Interface linked, part of an on-going extension of the companys JDF links in partnership with Heidelberg.
The high speed Suprasetter H74 will enable the company to feed the presses fast and to keep up with its substantial plates requirement. It has MultiCasette Loading meaning minimal manual intervention is required – the plates just keep being supplied.
“The operators in our prepress department chose the Suprasetter (after trialling several others) for its functionality, robustness and connectivity to other equipment,” says Mr Murray.
Stewarts will run with Kodak plates and, using PrintReady prepress software, will run different types of screening as required for optimum results.