Offset Printing
PSO Workshop a Great Success
Tuesday 08. January 2008 - MAN Roland is fully certified
How can my printing company receive ProcessStandard Offset (PSO) certification? With a two-day workshop in Offenbach in November 2007, the VDMH (Hesse Printing and Media Industries Federation) and MAN Roland explained to 25 participants the necessary steps along the way to PSO certification.
Efficient production, stable print quality, fewer complaints, customer satisfaction. Does PSO standardisation lead directly to printers heaven? Probably not directly, but its a fact that many print buyers with lucrative jobs to offer insist that a printing company meets the ProcessStandard Offset benchmark.
PSO certification as a competitive advantage
In recent years, many printing companies have invested in new technology, workflows, and top-flight staff. But excellent print quality alone does not ensure success – they must convey and prove their capabilities to the customers. An objective marketing aid here is PSO certification. Through compliance with the certification standards, a company proves it can deliver print products that meet the requirements of ProcessStandard Offset as well as the ISO 12647 standard.
The way to certification
Besides providing the basic necessities such as high-performance equipment and well-trained personnel, a printing company must ask itself: What significance does PSO have for my present customer base? Can certification bring me new customers – and is there a business model for this? The participants in the VDMH workshop were positive in their response to these questions because they had completed a demanding group course in preparation for the event.
Incoming data checks, proper handling of color profiles, and monitor calibration and proof output were only a few of the challenges participants were faced with in the “Prepress” part of the workshop. The “Printing” part included proper press settings and correct use of metrology, printing of an inking gradation sequence with a linear test form, and production of a characteristic curve print. The objective of the intensive fundamental knowledge transfer in the workshop was to prepare the printing companies well for the tasks involved in PSO certification.
The certification process as such requires a company to find solutions for different profile conversion tasks plus color-correct production of facsimile scans and contact proofs. Another assignment is to provide sample sheets from a print run to be compared with the OK sheet that must be within the permissible tolerances of ProcessStandard Offset ISO 12647-2:2007.
Certificate for MAN Roland
MAN Roland became the first press manufacturer to receive full PSO certification, meaning in both prepress and printing. Gerhard Augsberg, Manager of the Graphic Center: “Every year during demonstrations, thousands of print experts from all over the world are impressed by our print quality. Now this has been officially certified. We regard ProcessStandard Offset as a value-adding factor for printing companies which is why we support our customers in gaining certification”.
The press used for the tests in the Graphic Center was a six-color ROLAND 700 HiPrint with coating module and extended delivery. The materials used were printcom products which are certified and approved by MAN Roland (inks, damping solution, washing agents and blankets). ProcessStandard Offset ISO 12647-2:2007 certification confirms that, with this press in the Graphic Center and with printcom pressroom products, MAN Roland meets the requirements of PSO.
First-class results were achieved in the course of the certification process. Ten out of ten sample sheets pulled during the run met the specified standard, and only seven out of ten are needed for certification. Horst Rollmann from VDMH was also very impressed by the level of quality in the Graphic Center and rated the result as “one of the best I have seen so far”.