Offset Printing
Closing the loop: APL logistics with printnet OM
Friday 16. October 2009 - New benchmarks in workflow, networking and output management
Fast makeready times are becoming crucial to meeting market requirements. To save time and simultaneously provide the highest quality, many printers today are choosing the new manroland autoprint press series.
The autoprint series of printing systems from manroland are becoming fully automated step-by-step, from prepress to postpress. But what would a fully automated production system be without the right workflow system? printnet achieves homogeneous automation, networking and workflow solutions out of one platform. To enable customers to access all the advantages of a highly automated printing solution such as autoprint, together manroland and the software vendor ppi Media, a subsidiary of manroland AG, have developed the special printnet module APL sequence and output management printnet OM.
In the past, between prepress, meaning the CtP system, and postpress, automation has been lacking because the imaged printing plates were stored, sorted, and transported manually. At the printing units, the printer then had to load the plates. With autoprint, this is no longer necessary. Plates are delivered to the press cylinders automatically via APL logistics controlled by the software APL control. The APL robot arm then mounts the plates on the cylinder.
Full automation becomes possible
At this point, printnet OM enters the game: the system is an open output management system that integrates all current XML and other standard formats. Based on an automatically created workflow description, printnet OM controls all prepress systems accurately and generates a highly-automated prepress workflow that – if needed – can function without an operator. Full automation – from planning to print run – is now possible. printnet OM automates all working processes: RIP, imaging, production monitoring as well as proofing, and adjusts them to the requirements of APL.
In order to produce newspapers quickly and effectively, the transition of responsibility in the prepress process between the publishing house and the printing center must be clearly defined. printnet OM is used at the publishers to deliver plates for contents that have been released via proof to the printing center. There, fully-automated CtP output management is implemented according to the printing sequence and the requirements of APL technology which ensures the correct sequence for the automatic plate loading process. This solution saves time and money.
The advantages of printnet OM:
Integration of production processes across production sites
Optimized and flexible production processes
Optimized capacity utilization
Reduction of production costs and manning
Increased production transparency
Convenient and easy operation via a new user-interface design
High investment security thanks to the possibility of retrofitting new prepress systems or other ppi products in the future
autoprint customer: Mittelbayerisches Druckzentrum
One autoprint customer, the Mittelbayerisches Druckzentrum in Regensburg, Germany, has already decided to use the new printnet OM prepress workflow for its COLORMAN, XXL autoprint. Moreover, the Mittelbayerisches Druckzentrum has commissioned ppi Media to install the output management solution in the new printing center that is currently under construction. The publisher is looking for an end-to-end, uniform prepress solution. “After the fantastic experiences with page and ad production as well as with printnet OM, it was a logical decision to solve our new challenges using manrolands and ppi medias expertise”, said Ludwig Grüneisl, Managing Director of Mittelbayerisches Druckzentrum.