Limmatdruck (Commercial & Package Printing)

Headquarters, Spreitenbach

:Xcalibur VLF at Grafikon

After the positive experience with the :Galileo platesetter, the need for a VLF system made Limmatdruck choose the :Xcalibur VLF equipment. Together with the integration of :Apogee and the :Sherpa proofers, this results in a complete CtP workflow.

Limmatdruck

Limmatdruck, with headquarters near Zurich in Spreitenbach and three other plants in Switzerland, is Europe's first Agfa :Xcalibur VLF user.

Limmatdruck is a member of Switzerland's leading retailer, the Migros Group. With 546 employees, Limmatdruck realises an annual turnover of more than EUR 167 million in its divisions Publishing (47%), Service Center Direct Marketing (5%), Media Services (4%), and Packaging (44%).

The largest products of the Publishing department are the weekly Migros newspaper "Brückenbauer" and the French language version, "Construire" with a run length of more than 2 million copies.

Another major product is the "Saison-Küche"(also published in French and Italian), the monthly magazine of cookery and wellness that is placed first in the list of all Swiss publications dedicated to the art of cooking.

The Service Center Direct Marketing division includes the departments Call Center, Digital printing/Lettershop and Address Management.

The products of the Media Services Division are data management, PictureShop (customer database in Internet), eCommerce, eBanking, AVOCard, Internet and Intranet applications, video, audio, photography, magazines, posters, books, POS-Material, catalogues and commercial printing.

After the acquisition of the Swiss packaging company Zeiler AG, Limmatdruck became the second largest packaging printer in Switzerland. All the packaging prepress is done in-house. Limmatdruck even has its own R&D to develop new packaging solutions.

As providers of total solutions in pre-press, packaging development, production and packaging techniques, as well as copacking and members of the COPACO-Group, a strategic market alliance, Limmatdruck and Zeiler have become one of the most successful packaging manufacturers in Europe. Operating in the food, confectionery, pharmaceutical and non-food sectors, they have gained an outstanding reputation thanks to innovative packaging developments, such as ZetKLIK, ZetSLIDE, ZetPUSH and ZetPHARM. In the field of flip top boxes for candies and chewing gum, they are number one in Europe. PackagingShop, the online database and project management tool for digital packaging production, is a further innovative homemade development of Limmatdruck / Zeiler.

At Limmatdruck we asked Mr. Sebastian Gerard, Project Manager, some questions about their computer-to-plate experience.

Mr. Gerard, can you briefly explain your prepress workflow?

Once our jobs are finished from the front-end side, a PDF is sent to our :Apogee workflow system. The Apogee RIP converts the incoming PDF pages into bitmaps that are stored in :PrintDrive.
The :Apogee RIP runs on an Intergraph computer with dual 733-MHz Pentium with 3 processors and one gigabyte of RAM. These bitmap pages are in fact "digital films" and we can examine every detail, such as trapping and screen angles, on the colour monitor. Afterwards we make an imposition proof on one of our proofers. In our proofing department.

We use two :Sherpa 43, one :Sherpa 62 and one HP Designjet 2500.
When the job is OK, we send it to our :Xcalibur VLF platesetters.

What type of presses does Limmatdruck use ?

Our press room contains four MAN Roland presses; a 704 (4-colour), a 706 (6-colour), a 805 (5-colour) and a 905 (5-colour) , all with additional varnish units.
Starting from 2003, we have a Roland 708 (8-colour) with perfecting and UV print and varnish unit. All these presses (except the 805) are connected via the PECOM system with an online CIP3 connection.

At Zeiler AG we use a Rapida 105 (6-colour), a Heidelberg Speedmaster (6-colour), a Planeta Varimat (6-colour), and a MAN Roland 706 (6-colour), all equipped with a varnish unit.

In the finishing department we use machines from Bobst, Jagenberg.

What was the reason for Limmatdruck to integrate VLF CtP?

Since 1999, we started with a thermal Galileo platesetter integrated in the Agfa Apogee workflow. This 8-up platesetter couldn't handle the plate size of the MAN Roland 905 press but we wanted to have the benefits of CtP not only for our 8-up presses, but also on the VLF machines. That's why we decided to invest in a VLF platesetter.

Our strategy is to have a solution (workflow, platesetters and consumables) from one manufacturer, who takes responsibility over the complete system. Because we had very good experiences with the Agfa system, the :Apogee workflow, the :Galileo platesetter and the :Thermostar plates, it seemed quite logical for us to choose the :Xcalibur VLF platesetter from Agfa.

Also, the fact that our operators already knew the Agfa workflow, gave favour to the :Xcalibur investment. After Drupa we ordered the :Xcalibur VLF 60 and it was installed on January 2001.

Two years later, in December 2002, we installed a second :Xcalibur VLF, equipped with the new GLV laserhead.
Starting from then, there was no need anymore for film backup (with :Avantra imagesetter, conventional plate copy and Misomex), for our :Xcalibur platesetters. Since then we produce 100 percent computer-to-plate without any film backup.

How was the :Xcalibur VLF startup in your company?

The installation went very smoothly; after 2 days we could image our first plates. Because :Xcalibur VLF is easy to operate, the required training is really minimal.
We already used "Instrument Flight" software by System Brunner to control the process of the sheetfed presses. During the :Xcalibur startup period, a Brunner specialist came to check the calibration of the VLF System. He was surprised with the very high image quality, the dot consistency over the plate surface, and the one percent maximum tolerance.
We had the same experience with the installation of our second :Xcalibur VLF. The installation and integration into our existing network went fast and without problems. Also the calibration and quality of the imaging system looks very good.

How is your :Xcalibur VLF experience so far?

We can say that the move to CtP was a big success for our company. It started with :Galileo and it continues with the second :Xcalibur VLF. Thanks to CtP technology, we could reduce our prepress production costs. The production speed of :Xcalibur VLF responds exactly to our requirements, namely 13 plates per hour at full size format.
Also the prepress production speed has been substantially increased. Before, we needed between 6 to 24 hours to make plates starting from digital prepress files. Today with CtP, these production times are reduced to two to six hours. This gives us more flexibility to respond to the 'Just in Time' requirements of our customers.

On top of that, the quality is improved by sharper dots, better registration and the elimination of dust particles or scratches which often occur on film. And with the GLV, our new :Xcalibur VLF can even go one step beyond.
Another important benefit of CtP is the reduced press make-ready times due to more precise registration and the elimination of any plate retouching.
Also the CIP3 connection between :Printdrive and our presses contributes to shorten the make-ready times at the presses.
This result in 5- to 10-minute time savings per job; or 350 hours per year and about 100 to 200 sheets less paper waste per job; or 300,000 sheets on a yearly base.
So until today we are very pleased with Xcalibur plate production and we definitely will follow the CtP direction in the future.

:Xcalibur advantages for Limmatdruck:

- Shorter set-up times on the presses
- No plate retouch
- Higher quality
- More precise registration
- Time savings, less paper waste
- More efficient production