Fairfax Printers and APN News and Media each added violet computer-to-plate last year after years of investigating and watchful waiting of available technologies. Both publishers tapped Fujifilm and Krause for major deployments at sites throughout Australia and New Zealand.

For Fairfax Printers, the project involved decommissioning of five conventional film lines at its main site in Chullora (near Sydney) followed by installation of four Krause LS Jet 300 CTP machines, four Nela VCP Evolution plate benders and sortation equipment. Five film lines serving the publisher’s regional sites — one in Beresfield (near Newcastle) and four sites in New Zealand — were also decommissioned and replaced with two Krause LS Jet Eco units and two Nela benders.



The prepress area at APN’s print site in Yandina, Queensland, Australia.



APN has Tarng Yun optical benders installed in most of its sites.
Photos: APN News and Media

 

Increased plate throughput

Plate throughput for the Chullora site is approximately 250 plates per hour, per unit,  and approximately 120 pph, per unit at the regional sites, according to Publishing Operations and Project Manager Stephen Bambagiotti. Fairfax uses Fuji’s LP-NNV plates.

 

“We have all of our sites on CTP now,” Bambagiotti said. “There are many sites and many products distributed around those sites and there are key products that are typical to each site, but we can move products around the group as needed.”

The Chullora site, for example, can print The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun Herald and The Australian Financial Review.

This isn’t Fairfax’s initial foray into CTP. Bambagiotti said that although Fairfax just recently adopted the Fuji/Krause workflow, the publisher previously employed a Western Lithotech DiamondSetter FD-YAG (green laser) unit.

Fairfax decommissioned five lines of filmsetters prior to the installation of new violet CTP units from Krause and Fuji.
Photos: Fairfax Printers
 

Slower to adopt

“For our site at Chullora, commercially it was better to continue with the existing technology until recently,” Bambagiotti said. “The larger facilities have been a bit slower (to adopt CTP) mainly because we have waited for improvements in throughput, but additionally, the cost structure has previously been better suited to smaller sites.”

Bambagiotti is keen to the fact that CTP technology is changing every day and he likens the process of “waiting out” the technologies to buying a home computer.

“By the time you start it up, there’s a more advanced one on the market,” he said. “The longer you wait to implement a technology, the greater the benefits of technology improvements and functional advancements, however, this could be at the expense of quality and current capabilities.

“As soon as you make that commitment, the technology advances around you and you risk becoming comparatively obsolete sooner.”

That’s why, Bambagiotti said, Fairfax took future technology upgrades into account when adding the CTP units. For example, the equipment has provisions for advancements such as chemical-free processing. Handy for Fairfax, since Fuji recently announced plans for a chemistry-free plate.

The benefits of CTP have been immediately apparent, the publisher said, and include speedier output, improved quality, greater workflow control and increased equipment reliability.

APN adds six units

Like Fairfax, APN waited until CTP was completely cost-effective, said Gary Osborne, general manager of regional print. Last year APN decided to add two Krause LS Jet and four Krause LS Eco Jet units to its lineup, which already included two Agfa Polaris units. The installs took place throughout APN’s Australian operations. The publisher also has 50 percent of its business in New Zealand.

“We weren’t that excited about earlier CTP and waited for violet laser because we felt it was the process that suited our business best,” Osborne said.

APN prints 17 dailies, including The News Zealand Herald, numerous weeklies and commercial and opposition newspapers, imaging approximately 10,000 panorama-sized LP-NNV plates from Fuji each week.

The publisher’s CTP conversion covers its six print sites in Australia, mainly Queensland. Most sites have only one CTP unit and in the event of a machine failure, Osborne said plates are flown or driven to the closest APN site.

“This isn’t the best situation, but it’s worked quite well.”

APN plans to install a new press in the near future, but Osborne said the decision to install CTP at additional sites  was unrelated to the publisher’s future press buy.

“Our old sites were already using (Agfa) CTP,” he said. “Combined with better print technology, the end result on new presses is certainly a superior finish. We needed to update our color capacity and quality at most sites and this was the main reason for upgrades.”