Offset Printing
Presstek 34DI Boosts Print Quality at Printfast
Thursday 06. May 2010 - Printfast, a long-established copy shop based in Londons West End, is rapidly reaping the benefits of four-colour printing following the recent installation of a Presstek 34DI digital offset press. Presstek, Inc., is a leading supplier of digital offset printing solutions to the printing and communications industries.
Printfast was established in 1987 by John Godfrey who started his career as a print apprentice in Clerkenwell Road back in the 1960s. His son Fraser joined the business in 1991 and has since taken the reins. The Presstek 34DI digital offset press replaced the two two-colour presses Printfast was using for all its litho work. In addition the company has an HP Indigo for short-run digital work and variable data applications and an AB-Dick 9810 used for mono leaflet and business card work.
Partly due to their location, partly due to a conscious strategic decision Printfast deals with many different types of clients and market applications. They tend to have many walk-in customers who may need business cards and small brochures through to larger clients such as the Royal Mail, large clothing companies and restaurant chains and local government organisations. Fraser explains: “My fathers thinking had always been dont put all your eggs in one basket and that is why we prefer to deal with many different customers. This way the business suffers less if we lose a client or two.”
Upgrading to full colour high quality printing
Printfast had been considering upgrading to a four-colour press for the past five years but the physical weight of the machine put them off. The lack of an industrial floor on their site was bound to be an issue and so they opted for the lighter HP Indigo instead. However due to the significant decline of two-colour work in the recent years and as more and more jobs went to full colour, Printfast found themselves sending more and more four-colour work out. Fraser says: “The market became very price sensitive especially during the recent economic downturn and we found that we could not mark up the sub-contracted work any longer. We needed to gain a cost advantage in order to stay competitive and grow the business.”
The Presstek 34DI was the natural answer for those larger high-quality four-colour jobs and has helped Printfast streamline their processes and raise quality standards. Fraser adds: “The only way to run four-colour jobs in-house before was to run the job twice through the two-colour press which was not ideal and took a lot of time and manual intervention.”
Printfast purchased the Presstek 34DI at the end of 2009 but has had a relationship with Presstek since its inception in 1987. Fraser explains: “There is a lot of trust and Presstek cares about us and wants to help us grow our business as a long-term business partner. They even found a way to redistribute the weight of the press using a metal spreader plate. I knew the technology and had spoken to existing clients before making the move.”
Fraser continues to praise the print quality of the Presstek 34DI: “The quality is fantastic, we have not had a job rejected since we have been using it. The registration is excellent and we can use a variety of stocks up to 450gsm.” Printfast also purchased the PDSE densitometer which automates the setting of ink keys, reduces waste and increases consistency. Fraser adds: “We have total confidence in the quality of the work produced by the DI, which makes it easy to sell to our clients.”
The Presstek 34DI has brought a new level of efficiency and flexibility to Printfast. Fraser details: “Our set-up times have dropped dramatically as a result of the automation features of the 34DI. Because of the on-press imaging capability, we have found that if something has inadvertently been missed on a job we can add it by re-imaging the plate without having to use a new one. It only works in certain situations but it reduces waste and saves us time and money.” Printfast is also using the press to produce “hybrid” jobs in the most economical way; for example invitations with a variable data element are first printed on the 34DI and then personalised on the HP Indigo. Fraser adds: “Direct mail is another area where we use the two machines in combination. We print full-colour letterheads on the DI and follow with personalisation on the Indigo”.
Printfast has found that deciding which press to use for which job comes with experience but in general colour-critical work and print runs over 5,000 tend to benefit from the litho process and some jobs previously printed on the HP Indigo out of necessity have now been moved to the Presstek 34DI. Fraser says: “We have just been asked to quote on a business card job with a 15% black tint which we could only comfortably do on the DI.”
Last but not least, Printfast was attracted by the green credentials of Pressteks DI technology. Fraser says: “It uses chemistry-free imaging, is waterless and works with soy-based inks, allowing as environmentally friendly an operation as possible.” Fraser concludes: “We are confident that the Presstek 34DI will help us recover most of the lost revenue as a result of the recent recession as well as bring us an additional 25% increase in turnover.”