At the suggestion of the professionals from ECO3, formerly Agfa Offset Solutions, the Sterling Digital Print team learned about SPIR@L screening, which replaces the traditional ink dot with more efficient shapes such as spirals. SPIR@L screening offers ink savings, improved print quality, and no expensive CTP or printing press upgrades.
Sterling Digital Print is one of the financial industry’s leading print manufacturing resources and successfully serves a broader national and international business community. The New York-based company is driven by its mission to produce the highest print quality rapidly and cost-effectively.
With advanced digital and offset technologies, Sterling is an ideal resource for the most time-sensitive printing needs and delivers the most demanding assignments on time and on budget. Uniquely, Sterling operates on a 24/7 basis and is a trusted service provider to manufacturing, distribution, retail, institutional, service and nonprofit sectors.
‘We looked at SPIR@L for ink savings benefits,’ explained Dominick Yannotti, Sterling Digital Print’s Prepress Director. ‘But seeing the actual print, it’s more than that. I’ve never seen details so vibrant and crisp on offset stocks.’
SPIR@L screening requires less ink to represent the same tonality, thereby reducing image slur and delivering brilliant colours. Heatset and coldset presses run faster with less ink, which improves speed and productivity while reducing energy and overall costs.
‘In addition to quality improvements, we’ve reduced our make-ready from 500 sheets to 100 sheets with SPIR@L screening,’ Yannotti stated. ‘We are increasing production and might get two or three additional jobs per shift, depending on the types of jobs.’
Customers confidently choose Sterling to produce time-sensitive printing assignments with excellent results. During a press check, one of Sterling’s wall-covering catalogue clients noticed striking details in the output.
‘On the same sheet, in line with one another, were dark, light, intricate, and metallic swatches with all different textures. With SPIR@L screening, we didn’t have to sacrifice one wall covering to make the others look better; we hit the colour mark almost immediately. We had the client’s approval in about four minutes instead of working it out for half an hour,’ said Yannotti.
‘When looking to upgrade our workflow, we decided to explore everything on the market,’ stated Yannotti. ‘We have a trusting relationship with ECO3, so we looked into Apogee and found it visually user-friendly, adaptable and efficient. The Impose module is the greatest benefit; it gives us the flexibility to change specs and move from one press to another without having to redo everything. Apogee also easily creates hot tickets that streamline our production.’
The Apogee workflow controls every phase of the print production process from a single user interface. Jobs that consist of multiple parts are processed in one flow. The Impose module calculates optimal imposition schemes with minimal time, errors and paper waste. Switching between programmes is unnecessary, leading to a faster and more intuitive prepress process. It supports various algorithms to lower production costs, including multi-order imposition and cut-and-assemble.
Tighter environmental constraints combined with local policies on Long Island led Sterling Digital to add ECO3’s new chemistry-free printing plate to their press operations. Adamas, designed to handle print runs of up to 350,000 copies, matched Sterling’s sustainability needs and quick turnaround requirements. ‘Not only is Adamas a lot faster, but it also meets our environmental criteria,’ said Yannotti.
Adamas is a robust plate that replaces chemicals with a gumming solution and eliminates rinse water, decreasing waste and disposal costs and delivering a safer working environment. It offers photorealistic image quality up to 240lpi Sublima screening.
Adamas’ scratch-resistant surface allows for easy handling, while strong image contrast supports simple visual inspection and quality control. This ensures plates are mounted on press correctly, preventing costly mistakes.
ECO3 SOUTH AFRICA
+27 11 921 4650
dave.reynolds@ECO3.com
http://www.eco3.com
