Hong Kong printing company CTP experience

The pace of computer-to-plate (CTP) printing in Hong Kong is accelerating. In mid-1998, there were only five installations of CTPs in Hong Kong. However, as of February 2002, this figure has increased to as many as 40, an increase of more than eight times, of which about half were installed in 2001. Although Hong Kong was hit by the financial turmoil during this period, the economy has not yet improved and the operating environment is still very difficult. However, the prices of CTP plates have continued to decline, and the effectiveness of digital copywriting has become more mature. In addition, printing companies that have already installed CTP have a positive reputation for cost-effectiveness. Various factors have made the benefits of adopting CTP surpass the cost to be paid. Less printing companies have incorporated the installation of CTP into the schedule of the development plan.

Increased production efficiency

Almost all printing companies that have used CTP have agreed to use CTP, which has greatly improved production efficiency. Mr. Ma Shifang of Express Printing Co., Ltd. said: "Before CTP, the time for registration and color correction is about 15 to 20 minutes per copy. Therefore, the loss of paper is about 100 to 200 sheets, this is the basic loss of time and paper for each print. Now with the CTP out of the zinc plate, the first paper can be completely set, we use the Heidelberg CTP production system, can output CIP3 PPF ink control Documents, toning only 20 to 30 sheets, have a lot of losses, and the costs are also more competitive.The costs of plant overheads, machine depreciation, staff salaries, etc. are all relatively fixed, so the time savings can make us One or two more jobs are printed every day. The efficiency equivalent to printing presses has increased by 30%, which naturally brings more benefits."

The original business of Express was color separation, film output, and traditional drafting. In the middle of 2001, Heidelberg's printing presses and CTP production lines were purchased. The CTP uses Delta technical workflows, including the Delta Prepserver, responsible for RIP and file management, Signastation imposition workstations, CPC 32 Ink Computing Workstation, and a Trendsetter thermal zinc output. Machines, and three large-format inkjet printers, ICC profiles are calculated and generated by Print Open software. The color management staff will regularly update the ICC profiles. This is a very advanced CTP production line. The ROOM concept is used in digital manuscripts to ensure consistency with the output on the zinc plate. Due to the extensive experience of China Express in prepress, CTP only took two weeks of training after installation to fully start production. Although their printing is a newly-developed business, most customers are very satisfied with the output of the CTP zinc plate, and printing is also handled by Express, making them busy from morning till night.

In fact, CTP is not a patent of large companies. Some small and medium sized printing companies in Hong Kong are also considering applying CTP to parts and short-run markets. For example, special printing services can be promised to complete 1000 copies of A4 color leaflets within two hours. . This is equivalent to printing 250 sheets of paper on four printing presses. If it goes well, four to five such jobs can be completed in one hour. This delivery speed is difficult to achieve without CTP. CTP will gradually change the service and competition model of short-run printing.

Whether the CTP system is easy to use and whether it can effectively prevent problematic manuscripts from entering the production line has always been the key to the smooth operation of the CTP. Generally speaking, the company’s manual inspection of manuscripts is time-consuming, error-prone, and inefficient. It can easily cause bottlenecks. Therefore, PDF becomes the ideal format for CTP production. The reason is that in the process of forming a PDF file, the system has checked the integrity and correctness of the manuscript, and it can block the manuscript that has the problem from entering the system. Ligao Printing Co., Ltd. uses Agfa's Apogee Series 2 work flow because of the flexible support for PDF in the process. It can not only generate optimized PDF files on the client, but also can do PDF conversion in the background, and the system is easy to learn. According to Mr. Wu Liesheng, a partner of Lego, “We did not have any prepress experience before installing CTP. All software and computers related to prepress were purchased together when installing CTP. We have two employees in charge of each. In CTP production, when the CTP system was just installed, one employee just graduated from the college and the other was transferred from the customer service team. Since Apogee was easy to operate, it took only 3 months to train 2 people and it could be put into full operation. Our system operated for nearly a year, during which there was not a single print error and there was no support for Agfa's support services. At present, about 20% of the prints are sent to the CTP system for output of zinc plates. Customers have tried CTP for cost reasons, and now even the most demanding customers are willing to adopt it. Some customers' contributions are already in PDF format and can be immediately impositioned, greatly improving system throughput and speeding up production beats. The master also likes the CTP because the zinc plate of the CTP is easier to register, easier to print, and the production efficiency is significantly higher than before. Their printing Surgery can play better. "

Ligao's main business is book printing. At present, there are altogether 6 printing presses, and most of the printed products are shipped to markets in Europe and America. They use the complete Apogee Series 2 production process, which includes the Pilot responsible for PDF conversion and imposition, the PDF RIP for dot processing, the PrintDrive for managing output, and the large-format Galileo for violet printers. According to Mr. Wu, the use of Galileo is due to the faster output speed. Digital drafting includes two large-format Sherpa, ICC profiles calculated and produced by ColorTune Pro.

Adequate training is the key

Printing companies entering new technology fields will inevitably involve a lot of unknown factors, especially the use of CTP technology, which is a long-term capital investment, will take certain risks, the support of suppliers is very important, and good suppliers can make awkward roads. It becomes easy to walk. Therefore, the supplier’s technical strength, whether there is a complete solution, whether the training is adequate and comprehensive, whether the market and trends are fully understood and mastered, and whether they are willing to support long-term, these are the smooth operation of the printing company after the introduction of CTP. Elements. Lijia Paper Products Printing Industry Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in packaging and printing production. Prior to the introduction of CTP, all prepress processes were sent out. We hope that after introducing CTP, we can provide design, prepress, printing, and post-press binding. Full service. According to Lijia Wuli, the director of Lijia, “We chose the screen because they promised to give us the greatest support. Finally, they also fulfilled their promises. When we first started installing CTP, the screens were sent every day to guide people on the spot and answer the questions of our employees. Technical questions to solve the production difficulties encountered due to the installation of scanners, film output machines, zinc output machines, digital drafting equipment, etc. There are many problems encountered in printing and flexographic printing. The screens help us to overcome them one by one. We can establish a production team in a short period of time. The CTP will probably be put into production for one year. Customers appreciate the quality of CTP. Some customers have also specified to use CTP printing."

Lijia is a heavyweight printing company. Besides 12 offset printing presses, there are also several flexographic presses and complete post-press processing facilities. CTP uses the screen's TrueFlow workflow and its core is PDF data processing. , PlateRite Thermal Output Machine for Zinc Plate, “Knife God” Output Machine for Films, Colorful Fairy for Scanners, LabProof System for Digital Drafting, This system supports 1-bit TIFF scripts, and ICC profile is calculated and generated by LabFit. .

Improve the quality of technology naturally

Rotary machines have always been the main method of processing large quantities of printing. Because of their high speed, their control is generally more difficult than that of the Offset. To use CTP in conjunction with rotary printing, many problems will naturally arise. Mr. Chen Yucai, assistant vice president of Taiye (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., fully agrees with this point. He said: "So we spent two years doing enough preparation before we started CTP. We simulated the CTP production process within two years and found all possible problems first, came up with a solution, and this At the same time, we also set up production standards and quality specifications, and tested various contingency plans, so that when it comes to actual CTP production, we naturally become familiar with it. It turns out that this strategy was very successful. After we installed the zinc output machine, it was the next day. For full production, all processes operate as usual, and for employees, the output zinc version only adds one option to the output, and nothing else. The CTP system has been in production for about two years, and no errors have been encountered. Currently, about 60% of zinc is produced. The version is handled by the CTP system.Because many of our customers are publishers of international magazines, they must meet their quality requirements before they have business. If the quality is not in place, there may even be compensation. Therefore, we have high requirements for color. Depending on the characteristics of your web press, paper ink composition, etc., establish different ICC profiles, and each time All test color stability. Our goal is the quality on par with the world's top printing enterprises, currently being tested application FM network in offset presses, initial results be ideal. "

Tai Yee currently has five rotary press production lines and two flat offset presses. The CTP system is Creo's workflow. The zinc output machine includes two Trendsetters, and one Renaissance is used to copy the film outlets. There are still 90% of advertisements submitted in the form of film, digital printing both large format inkjet printers, but also color laser printers. Taiyee’s CTP process is conducted separately in two workplaces. The first workshop is responsible for manuscript inspection, picture separation and digital drafting, and the second workshop is responsible for zinc plate output, outlet copying and actual printing management. The two sites are approximately one hour away by car, with a dedicated line connecting the two sites. The production standards are the key to the smooth operation of the system.

Master new knowledge and take advantage of CTP

Some printing companies think that purchasing CTP means buying a batch of computer servers, zinc output machines, digital drafting machines, and so on. As a result, cost-effective calculations are concentrated on hardware and software facilities. In fact, the essence of CTP used by printing companies is to master new production knowledge and use new knowledge to innovate printing technology. Therefore, the cost of acquiring new knowledge, the breadth and depth of new knowledge, and whether new knowledge can be used to increase profits are all factors that must be carefully measured. Some printing companies installed CTP, and their quality and business volume increased simultaneously. Some printing companies failed to increase their competitive advantage after installing CTP. The difference was in the quality of the knowledge acquired.