The Irish Times opened the doors to its new facility in City West, Dublin, on
Sept. 20.
It took 18 months to get the Irish Times into
full production at the new facility. The newspaper’s former facility was
limiting print run capacity to one run per day. Congestion near the former site
on D’Olier Street was also a problem for The Times.
The Irish Times was able to move the entire print
production of the newspaper while maintaining services in the center of Dublin.
The Irish Times’ Technology and Resources
Director Séamus McCague with the Polaris CTP machines (left) and outside of the
new facility in City West, Dublin (below).
Photos courtesy of Agfa
“We have always considered ourselves as an
innovative company with a keen eye for business,” said Séamus McCague,
technology and resources director for the newspaper. “Our new operation needed
to provide a strengthened brand and influence in the increasingly competitive
market that we operate in.”
McCague said the old site could not keep up with
advertiser demands for increased color because color pages were limited to a
total of 12. The Times’ first full test run with all of the new equipment in
place at the new facility — which includes two Polaris computer-to-plate
platesetters and the IntelliNet workflow system from Autologic, an Agfa Co. —
enabled the newspaper to produce 64 pages in full color.
“Without doubt we have raised productivity and
quality standards and by getting plates to the press faster can offer greater
topicality and later deadlines to our customers,” McCague said.
The Times evaluated several vendors before
choosing Agfa for its CTP units.
“I have to say that Agfa came out well in front
… When you need to produce over 180 plates an hour (per machine) dependably,
this is where the Polaris systems score.”
The Times is imaging Agfa N91 photopolymer plates
on the Polaris machine.
The Times’ new $68.8-million (70 million euro)
plant is printing pages on an eight-unit, two folder GeoMAN press from MAN
Roland Inc. The newspaper’s mailroom systems were provided by Muller Martini
Corp.
In addition to the 130,000-run, 120-page
newspaper, production capacity is also geared toward the expansion by The Irish
Times into contract commercial printing.
