COMPLEXITY MADE SIMPLE^®

Southeastern, a graphics solutions provider in Stuart, Florida featuring six-color offset presses, embraces the tagline “Complexity made simple^®.” In an increasingly competitive market, print providers like Southeastern need the right tools to be able to enable them to attract demanding customers, and to be able to adjust quickly when job requirements change. Further, many print buyers today seek not only quality, but expect their providers to document that quality through quantified reporting. Further, they expect their providers to help them to drive costs out of their processes to keep projects under budget. Therefore, Southeastern was an ideal candidate for the Techkon PressLink Closed-Loop Color Control solution.

PressLink is a complete offset color control solution that integrates automated ink key presetting from imposed digital files with spectrally-based readings of both density and colorimetric information to assure documented process control. The result is a dramatic increase in pressroom productivity, including faster make-ready and reduced waste.

SAVINGS IN TIME AND MATERIALS

In the case of Southeastern, after installing the PressLink system on one of their six-color sheetfed presses a make-ready time savings of over one minute per plate was documented, for a total that equates to a savings of over 30 hours per month. In a business with razor-thin margins this ability to decrease make-ready time, together with the paper and other materials associated with that time savings, may mean the difference in being sufficiently profitable to re-invest into the company to attract new customers. This also means that the PressLink system pays for itself in a short period of time.

The materials waste savings made possible by the PressLink includes not only those saved during make-ready, but also during the run. One key feature of PressLink is to provide real-time densitometric and colorimetric information for several key attributes to the press professionals; the system offers not only process control but is a true quality assurance tool.  Density, tone value and colorimetric data such as CIE L*a*b* and Delta-E assure the ability to run in conformance to specified printing conditions and to address the root cause of possible problems.  At Southeastern, waste on their six-color sheetfed press decreased by over 2% with the adoption of PressLink.

IMPROVED QUALITY

The PressLink solution also improved quality and consistency at Southeastern which has not been unnoticed by their customers. The management team received unsolicited correspondence to that effect. Further, on a recent press check, a long-time editor of a regional magazine remarked, “This year we switched from a gloss stock to a newer dull stock. The transition has been seamless and the whole process a breeze. We were able to get our forms up to color very quickly, saving us lots of time in proofing.”  PressLink provided the tools to build the foundation necessary to quickly adjust to changing customer needs while maintaining quality.

While some may think closed-loop color control systems are complex and difficult to use, Southeastern manager Don Lewis cites the ease-of-use of the PressLink solution as a key factor in its extensive utilization. Lewis states: “Everyone loves the Techkon PressLink, because it makes their jobs easier.”

Clearly, PressLink is the one closed-loop color control solution that can positively impact productivity, waste and ensure quality, a win-win-win for the printers and their customers.