Drukkerij Baudoin (Commercial Printer)
Drukkerij Baudoin eliminates chemicals with Agfa's :Acento CtP system and :Azura plates
Drukkerij Baudoin is a mid-sized commercial printing company located in Lichtaart, Belgium. The company was founded in 1973 by Mr. Jos Baudoin and his wife Carolina Klockaerts. Today the company is managed by Mr. Patrick Van de Water and by Mr. Alphons Severeyns.
Drukkerij Baudoin has three departments: printing, publishing and advertising.
The printing division has thirteen printing groups.
The publishing group publishes the weekly "De Postiljon" with local news, interviews and reports. The advertising bureau, Arti-Line, develops a wide range of products, from business cards to complete advertising campaigns.
Drukkerij Baudoin specialises in sheetfed offset printing and offers complete services to its customers including finishing. The average run length of a job is 15,000 prints.
In 2003 drukkerij Baudoin received the renowned "Sappi European Printer Award" for offset printing with a bronze award in the book category.
Drukkerij Baudoin is one of the first worldwide users of Agfa's chemistry-free :Azura plates. In September 2004 they started CtP production with the :Acento platesetter and :Azura plates. In the following interview Mr. Patrick Van de Water explains to Agfa his experiences with the new :Azura plate.
Mr. Van de Water, could you briefly describe your production workflow?
In our prepress department we have a few workstations for page-makeup with T5000 and T2000 scanners from Agfa.
We receive about 50% of the jobs in PDF, and the rest mainly in Quark Xpress and Pagemaker. The colours are controlled on calibrated monitors, and proofed on the :Sherpa 24 inkjet system. Sometimes, we make the proofs on our production presses.
Once the pages are processed with the :ApogeeX workflow system, we make an imposition proof on the :Sherpa 24. This replaces the former blueprint proof and gives us a guarantee that the plates will turn out OK.
Before we had CtP, we copied our imposed films on Agfa's :Alympia plates.
But recently, we installed the :Acento 4-up thermal platesetter from Agfa, with :Azura chemistry-free plates.
In our pressroom we have a three Heidelberg Speedmaster presses; 74-4, 52-4 and 52-2.
What made you decide to switch to CtP?
Before making the decision to invest in CtP, we took time to analyse different systems, as we were not in a hurry. We were interested in the advantages that CtP systems could offer us, such as higher quality, reduced press setup times and shorter turnaround times.
It was very important to us to get a stable system, and one that was easy to operate. Our CtF systems demanded constant calibration to keep each imaging parameter stable. A "classic" CtP system, with conventional digital plates and chemistry, would have been much easier to keep under control. Yet we still wanted something more.
We wanted a CtP system that was simple, easy to keep stable and had very few imaging parameters to control. We wanted to go further than conventional CtP, we wanted a process-free solution.
At Drupa 2004, at Agfa's booth, we discovered the system we were looking for: the :Acento thermal platesetter with chemistry-free :Azura plates. Had it not been for :Azura, which matched our needs exactly, we would not have a CtP system today.
Why did you choose :Azura plates?
When we made the decision to invest in a chemistry-free CtP solution, there were practically no other working 4- up plate systems available. We did several tests with :Azura on our presses and found out that it behaved almost the same on the press as our conventional :Alympia plates, but resulted in noticeably higher print quality.
How did you experience the start-up of the new system?
The installation and start-up went very smoothly. It actually happened during my vacation. I was pleasantly surprised when I returned and the whole system was up and running. In the beginning we had planned to have both the CtF and the new CtP systems running side by side until the new system was fully ready. But, after only a few weeks, all of our production shifted to the new :Acento platesetter with :Azura plates. Today, monthly production averages about 660 plates.
What benefits does :Azura bring your business?
:Azura gives us the classic benefits of CtP, such as improved print quality. We achieve prints with a higher contrast, and can print between175-200 lpi screen rulings. Also, the press make-ready time is significantly shorter because there is no need for plate retouching.
In addition to improved quality, the chemistry-free :Azura plate performs better. Because there is no chemistry involved anymore, the system is more stable and reliable. The only process that happens after imaging the plate is a gumming step, which we have found to be extremely stable. When we replace the tank of gum, the first plate gummed with the new gum has exactly the same exposure as the last plate gummed with the old gum. No matter when we change the gum, the exposure of the plates remains exactly the same.
Also, the amount of plate production does not influence the stability of the system. It does not matter if we produce ten plates one day and 100 plates the next, the results are exactly the same. And because chemistry has been eliminated from the workflow, the :Azura system needs very little maintenance.
How does :Azura help your business to be more competitive?
With :Azura we are able to produce print in a more efficient way. The minimal effort it takes to keep the system stable and clean saves us time and money.
We have eliminated all of the costs associated with buying and disposing of chemistry, and we now produce in a much cleaner way, which saves us a considerable amount of money on environmental taxes.
I also found that the procedure to acquire an environmental licence for our printing activities went much smoother once the government was aware of our chemistry-free system.
Mr. Van de Water, what are your plans for the future?
I have seen the excellent results that are achieved using Agfa's :Sublima screening, and am looking forward to implementing this technology on our :Acento platesetter with :Azura plates. I am convinced that this will lead to even better printing quality.