some azura feedback

[beermonster]

we trialled some azura plates last week. the plates had been standing around for over a week (the trial kept getting put back due to - work - how inconvenient).

so - it was a job we'd already printed, so we had pass sheets to compare for colour etc. The job had three large 4 colour images, some large areas of flat tints, some fine screens, tight registration and was a full on sheet size - so all in all a fairly good test job.

and the feedback was good

makeready> no significant difference

getting fit> no problems, but we seldom have problems from out screen tanto imagesetter - in fact - never. and these plates were punched manually in the studio, then in press - so that was an important subject - to punch or not. on this occasion - it was fine manually punching.

colour> ok - so 2 different imaging methods and plates, but the colour was excellent. the trial wasnt a long run, but they said they could match the previous pass sheet no problems - which is excellent. and they got close without trying - so we were impressed there. indicates any transition would less painful than we initially estimated.

plate behaviour on press> well - the comment was "if we didnt know it was a ctp plate - really - we probably couldnt tell" - it behaved really well. yeah - they could tell - the point being the press handled the plate well without issue and was predictable and stable.

would press be happy using it > oh yes - no problems. and NO spotting out which they loved.

some issues not covered we run lengths with aggressive substrates or metallic inks - we didnt have the time, money etc to cover everything, but the trial went well

2 week old plates (they were imaged in belgium and posted over to us), tricky print job, manually punched - all ok.

then............ :roll:







after doing all of this, getting pricing from old ctp, second hand ctp, new ctp - the full blooming monty............


....they said no to ctp.

please - please - can i have the last three months of my career back :?

[tuff_gong]

CTP is just a passing fad. What you need is one of those big-ass Brown horizontal cameras, that's the ticket....

[beermonster]

yeah - good idea - and anyone got a duping processor?

[santa]

I hear linotype is making a strong comeback so maybe you can have them look there.

I feel really bad for you, as we have been using these plates for over two years now and EVEYONE loves them.

[beermonster]

santa

well we're a small-ish family run company (approx 50 employees) and the purchse process for anything more than a software upgrade becomes one long scrap in the car park with everyone else who is wanting money for stuff - sadly. last man/woman standing gets the investment (my 4 years tae kwan do and tang soo do come in hany here)

so - for the next 2 years at best, its film STILL for us -which makes no sense to me with the figures i came up with. forget plates per hour - my point is quality of plate, no chemistry, excess power/water usage - the whole shooting match. then it simply working cleanly on press - to me its a no brainer.

i rekon spotting out on press alone would save a huge amount of time/money - but - its their company and its done their way, and we have survived this long so i have to respect that and go along with it - whether i agree or not.

maybe its time to talk to my film and plate suppliers and casually "suggest" a major price increase......

[santa]

Beer

I feel your pain. I am one of the family, and still the "little brother" @ 35 in our smalish (10 employees) family business. It was pulling teeth going from film to CTP and I gave them alll the same reasons you had, time, quality, registration, but it finally came down to simple math which was the amount of money we were spending for film, film developer, & fix, was less than the payment for our Acento Platesetter,Nexus, and Epson 9600, Dynastip, and Chromapro Color Rip, and our plate price was a dollar cheaper than our conventional fuji plate price ( that I attribute to a "great" plate salesman who never passed on the volume discounts as our business grew).

Than, if you add in no silver recovery, no matchprint material, no matchprint chemistry, no processsor cleaning for hours, no matchprint laminator sucking up the juice, no dylux paper, no frame, no hotspots or holes on press. It became a money saver.

I'll hoist a room tempature Samuel Smith for you and even make it an Imperial Pint.

Cheers

Santa

[beermonster]

you sir are a gentleman

i WILL get there with some kind of ctp - eventually....

thing is, they've mentioned getting in a "buyer" here and that fills me with dread. lord knows what they'd end up getting! IMO the azura is spot on for us for the obvious reasons, even though the plate is more costly. the gains are too many to mention, so the decision baffles me. the figures add up nicely.

having said that, i've been here long enough to see they move very slowly on some things and this is one of them. its frustrating when the two "sons" who recently took over put out a mission statement stating ...blah...less waste...greener company....less down time.......more productivity....more profit.....blah blah

but, they have the purse strings and we are still here as a company, so like it or not i have to trust in what they do and where they steer us

cheers santa