Prepress
The Burke Group automates its prepress processes to better serve customers
Wednesday 12. August 2020 - With a rich 118-year history, The Burke Group of Edmonton, Canada knows how to evolve through the decades successfully. Today, the organization is a top leader in the Canadian printing industry. CEO Ian Burke is driving the print market forward by advancing print technology and adapting to business changes. His strategy is to increase Burke Groups customer value by becoming a single, in-house source for quality print, signage, direct mail, graphics design, and digital services.
The Burke Group offers streamlined communications, state-of-the-art equipment, and expert staff that provide hassle-free, economical, and practical print and graphic imaging solutions. Clients enjoy the benefits of a seamless concept-to-completion service with a supplier that respects the environment by adopting the newest and most sustainable products and processes available.
As part of its sustainability objectives, the Burke Group use Apogee as a driving force for production and Agfa Energy Elite Pro no-bake, thermal plates for consistent print quality.
“XML fed by our home grown MIS drives our Apogee workflow,” explains Brad Clark, prepress manager at the Burke Group. “A large percentage of our work is processed automatically maintaining control of all prepress processes with minimal operator touch. Because of these automations, Burke Group is able to centralize all prepress functions using a unified Apogee workflow feeding satellite plants from one location.”
Simplifying the production process
“Our goal is to simplify the production process by achieving efficiencies in prepress and on press,” states Clark. “Apogee is easy-to-use. We tried other software solutions but Apogee was in our opinion the best fit for the needs of our plants. Training staff on Apogee is easy, its simple, powerful and intuitive.”
To better serve customers, Clark recognized the need to streamline Burkes G7 color management processes across pressroom locations in Edmonton and Calgary. They turned to PressTune, a print standardization tool that integrates with Apogee. “PressTune challenges us to refine our processes so we can achieve higher evaluated scores,” explains Clark. “Simplistic to use, it takes minimum time to achieve G7 standard. It helps us to identify problems and correct curves that we can import into our unified Apogee workflow for either Edmonton or Calgary plants.”
Better ink control increases productivity
Burke Group recognized the next step was to control ink coverage with InkTune as part of its Agfa solution. InkTune integrates into the prepress workflow to improve color control by using Gray Component Replacement (GCR). GCR substitutes CMY inks with more economical black (K) ink for better ink control. Together, PressTune and InkTune help achieve faster make-ready times and reduces waste while increasing productivity.
Focused on ecology, economy and extra convenience, or ECO3, Agfa offers hardware, software and consumables that make printing operations cleaner, more cost effective and easier to operate and maintain.
With faster turnaround times, Burke Group is increasing its short run capacity exponentially. With Apogee, PressTune and InkTune integrated workflow solutions standardizing their operations, they have been able to increase productivity and deliver a superior product to their valued customers.
Offset presses at Burke Group
For more than a century, the Burke Group has grown and adapted with a culture of advancing print technology. By adopting sustainable solutions from Agfa, the company is validating their performance and is destined to maintain their longstanding industry leadership for decades to come.