PBL Print upgrades CTP to cope with increased short-run demand

13 February 2014

Investment & installations

PBL Print has invested in a new Heidelberg Suprasetter A75 platesetter to keep pace with the demand for short-run litho work produced on its two SM 52 Anicolor presses.

The North East-based printer moved to its current Chester-le-Street site and installed a raft of new equipment with the help of a £1.3m cash injection from Yorkshire Bank's Investing for Growth initiative in 2012.

This included a Polar guillotine and two Stahlfolders as well as three new Heidelberg presses: an SX 74-5 plus the two Anicolors, an SX 52-4 and an SX 52-5. Since then the company has also installed a Horizon Stitchliner 6000 and recently spent £120,000 on a new mezzanine.

With more and more short run work coming in from health authorities, hospitals and print management companies for the firm's ISO 12647 accredited Anicolors, PBL has now decided to upgrade one of its two Suprasetter platesetters.

Chris Murley, sales director at PBL Print, said: "With run lengths coming down the Anicolors are really coming into their own. They specialise in short-run four-colour work - we're doing things like 200 off perfect bound booklets on them."

This trend has led to a potential bottleneck in plate production for the Anicolors, which get through 6,000 plates a month between the two presses, leading PBL to swap the older of its two Suprasetters - a four-year-old, 14 plate-an-hour A74 - for a new 22 plate-an-hour A75.

This will be a dedicated machine for the Anicolors, while the firm's remaining 17 plate-an-hour A75 will produce plates for the SX 74-5.

The new CTP device has been specified with an automatic top loader, allowing the pre-press team, which - unlike the rest of the factory - operates on a day shift only, to set it up to output plates overnight if necessary.

The Suprasetter A75 ATL will be installed by the end of this month and will run Heidelberg's Saphira chem-free plates.

Commenting on the investment in the new mezzanine, Murley said: "We do a lot of pick and pack work for the NHS and we've been able to move all of that off the shop floor and onto the new 370sqm mezzanine.

"We've also extended the office space at the front of the building and created a storage space for things like the chemistry, which has given us about 25% extra space on the factory floor and a much more efficient workflow."