Business News
Il Sole 24 Ore shines with Fujifilm Brillia PRO-VN low-chemistry plates
Tuesday 05. October 2010 - Gruppo 24 Ore is the most important Italian publishing group operating
in the financial, economical and professional field, featuring books, magazines, guides and publications addressed to business specialists, and also offering multimedia services. Its main publication is Il Sole 24 Ore,
the leading financial newspaper in Italy, also distributed widely across Europe.
Confindustria, the Italian organisation which represents Italian manufacturing and services companies, is the main stakeholder of the group. With a turnover of 500 million and 2000 employees, it has its headquarters in Milan and eight manufacturing premises around Italy. The main plants are located in Milan and Carsoli, near LAquila, in the south of Italy.
Il Sole 24 Ore, that today represents 50% of the groups revenue, was established in Milan in 1965 due to the merger of two respected Italian magazines, “Il Sole”, founded back in 1865, and “24 Ore”.
Alberto Borgarelli, Technical Director, has been with the company for 20 years, facing the printing industry evolution and its increasing challenges. Alberto is responsible for the whole printing department.
This now comprises four Man Regioman web offset machines, two of them located at the Milan and Carsoli premises respectively, and two managed by some external printing partners. The four presses are supported by a strong pre-press and finishing offering to guarantee a reliable, end-to-end workflow.
With a daily circulation of 350,000 copies, which includes different inserts every week, the production of Il Sole 24 Ore often requires two or three shifts every day, day and night. Each press uses around 250 plates per day, most of them made overnight. Managing the optimisation and updating of the production department is one of the key issues the group faces.
So, when Fujifilm introduced its Brillia PRO-VN plates in July 2009, Alberto Borgarelli was immediately interested. He comments: “I thought that Brillia PRO-VN was a breakthrough technology that could improve our production environment, streamlining our costs. And Fujifilm is a step ahead in the development of low chemistry plates.”
Brillia PRO-VN is one of the latest Fujifilm plates designed to simplify the prepress process, as it uses less chemistry, requires less maintenance of the finishing unit and produces less waste than its processed alternatives. Based on the same technologies as Fujifilms Brillia HD PRO-V low-chemistry violet plate for general commercial print applications, Brillia PRO-VN allows newspaper printers to drastically reduce chemistry usage.
“In autumn 2009 I approached Fujifilm to get more information on this innovative product and at the beginning of 2010 we started testing Brillia PRO-VN at our premises in Milan. It was an exacting process, during which we looked in detail at everything from run length to colour control, and I was delighted with the wholehearted support that the Fujifilm team here in Italy gave us, with the depth of their knowledge and skill-set,” continues Alberto.
In the first instance, Alberto focused on testing Brillia PRO-VN for its production capacity and long run lengths (up to 230,000 copies), then he concentrated on quality, colour optimisation and consistency. This was a crucial issue in order to reach a stable, repetitive and reliable production workflow. When Alberto was satisfied with the accuracy that the Brillia PRO-VN plates offered, he took the decision to go into full production at the Milan site.
“The road we have travelled with Fujifilm has been a very positive one.
We are the first company in Italy to certify the durability of Brillia PRO-VN and we are proud of the result.” When asked about the choice of Brillia PRO-VN, Alberto replies: “We use many plates every day, so we were interested in adopting these innovative, low chemistry plates that could reduce waste and therefore costs, improving our workflow. Fujifilm Brillia PRO-VN boasts a unique market proposition”.
Utilising Fujifilms high sensitivity polymerisation technology, the Brillia PRO-VN newspaper plate enables newspaper printers to achieve the same levels of productivity with PRO-VN as those achieved with conventional processed violet CTP plates. In addition, Brillia PRO-VN benefits from Fujifilms patented MultiGrainTM technology which ensures optimum ink/water balance and advanced handling performance.
Gruppo 24 Ore is committed to delivering high quality copies of its influential newspaper, as well as lowering its environmental footprint. The Carsoli plant is already ISO 14001 compliant and the group has begun the quality scheme to obtain the same certification for its Milan premises.
“Sustainability is a relevant topic within our group. That means having an environmental responsibility and saving money in terms of waste and process optimisation,” adds Alberto.
With regards to future projects, Alberto Borgarelli is interested in repeating the successful Brillia PRO-VN implementation now completed in Milan, at the Carsoli plant. It could be another winning move for this advanced editorial company, which skilfully combines technology investments with unceasing attention to quality improvements.
Finally, it is worth saying that Gruppo 24 Ore is one of the winners of the Ifra Color Quality Club 2010, promoted by the leading newspaper exhibition. This competition gives a prize to the newspaper printers that show an impressive demonstration of their capacity to produce reliable and colour consistent products in accordance with the exacting ISO standards.