Operation Digital Output
September 1998
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Shopping for and finding digital output devices to enhance workflow productivity is a matter of education in relation to your needs.
By Marie Ranoia Alonso
SHOPPING THE output odyssey is not a simple task for package printers looking to expand in a digital direction. So many solutions in the platesetting segment, so much to consider. Thermal or non-thermal platesetter? Small or large format? Semi- or fully-automated? What is the ROI?
Pay close attention to new OEM agreements, such as the recently struck Agfa agreement to market Krause America's LaserStar 140 and LaserStar 170 platesetters, bringing a great deal of PDF power to the Krause line. Also, take notice of the ongoing technological initiatives of the Heidelberg/Creo alliance which should prove for interesting moves in digital platemaking and digital color proofing.
Dan Keane, president at Buffalo, NY-based Mod-Pac, a converter of folding cartons for the pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, confectionery and automotive markets, did his homework regarding digital prepress options. Currently, Mod-Pac has a digital prepress unit routed to the Macintosh G3 platform. The prepress force at Mod-Pac accepts a bulk of its work via digital file transfer, primarily using 4-Sight's iSDN Manager. It also operates a Kodak DCP 9000 digital color proofer, with a Creo Spectrum halftone digital color proofer on order from Heidelberg Prepress.
Making the decision to be a thermal CTP shop, Mod-Pac accomplishes its digital platesetting on a Creo Trendsetter 3244, driven by a Delta workstation from Heidelberg Prepress. PackPilot, Heidelberg's digital workflow solution for packaging, is in place in the Mod-Pac operation, delivering automated step-and-repeat, as well as built-in nesting.
How digital does Keane want Mod-Pac to go? The folding carton converter is working to be fully CIP3 compliant (see CIP3 Refresher sidebar, this page), sporting CPC32 functionality from Heidelberg, which gives Mod-Pac a digital interface between the prepress and press departments.
"We are moving to an all-digital workflow, with perhaps the final piece of our puzzle being the installation of our Creo Spectrum digital proofer," Keane reports. "With shortening cycle times, increased production pressures and remarkable achievements in digital technologies designed to address both concerns, the logical move for any packaging environment is in a digital direction."
Pointing any prepress environment in that all-digital direction, though, takes some planning. Still, the end result may be well worth the headaches and calculations factored into any purchase plans.
"One of the most important things CTP brings to the package printing table is consistency—the true ability to generate consistent plates day in, day out, with a nonvariable process," asserts Achim Schmidt, manager for the packaging and label industry, Heidelberg.
By Marie Ranoia Alonso
SHOPPING THE output odyssey is not a simple task for package printers looking to expand in a digital direction. So many solutions in the platesetting segment, so much to consider. Thermal or non-thermal platesetter? Small or large format? Semi- or fully-automated? What is the ROI?
Pay close attention to new OEM agreements, such as the recently struck Agfa agreement to market Krause America's LaserStar 140 and LaserStar 170 platesetters, bringing a great deal of PDF power to the Krause line. Also, take notice of the ongoing technological initiatives of the Heidelberg/Creo alliance which should prove for interesting moves in digital platemaking and digital color proofing.
Dan Keane, president at Buffalo, NY-based Mod-Pac, a converter of folding cartons for the pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, confectionery and automotive markets, did his homework regarding digital prepress options. Currently, Mod-Pac has a digital prepress unit routed to the Macintosh G3 platform. The prepress force at Mod-Pac accepts a bulk of its work via digital file transfer, primarily using 4-Sight's iSDN Manager. It also operates a Kodak DCP 9000 digital color proofer, with a Creo Spectrum halftone digital color proofer on order from Heidelberg Prepress.
Making the decision to be a thermal CTP shop, Mod-Pac accomplishes its digital platesetting on a Creo Trendsetter 3244, driven by a Delta workstation from Heidelberg Prepress. PackPilot, Heidelberg's digital workflow solution for packaging, is in place in the Mod-Pac operation, delivering automated step-and-repeat, as well as built-in nesting.
How digital does Keane want Mod-Pac to go? The folding carton converter is working to be fully CIP3 compliant (see CIP3 Refresher sidebar, this page), sporting CPC32 functionality from Heidelberg, which gives Mod-Pac a digital interface between the prepress and press departments.
"We are moving to an all-digital workflow, with perhaps the final piece of our puzzle being the installation of our Creo Spectrum digital proofer," Keane reports. "With shortening cycle times, increased production pressures and remarkable achievements in digital technologies designed to address both concerns, the logical move for any packaging environment is in a digital direction."
Pointing any prepress environment in that all-digital direction, though, takes some planning. Still, the end result may be well worth the headaches and calculations factored into any purchase plans.
"One of the most important things CTP brings to the package printing table is consistency—the true ability to generate consistent plates day in, day out, with a nonvariable process," asserts Achim Schmidt, manager for the packaging and label industry, Heidelberg.
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