St Ives is pressing ahead with the introduction of CTP within its web division, and installed a system at Andover earlier this month.

Andover has opted for the same set-up as Plymouth, which went CTP earlier this year. It is running an Agfa Apogee workflow linked to a CreoScitex Lotem 800V2 platesetter. An upgrade to the Lotem Quantum is planned. Both sites are currently using KPGs thermal plates.

The system went in at Andover on the Friday, and within three days was producing 300 plates a day, said group director of technical services John Charnock. Were very happy with both installations. Apogee is the most established PDF workflow, and if you want to process large numbers of PDFs quickly in a magazine environment its the best.

Flexibility of plate supply was also important, said Charnock: We like to keep equipment and consumables separate.

The sites are using Agfa Sherpas and DuPonts Digital Cromalin for proofing.

Although St Ives has not announced further details of its CTP roll-out plans, IPC is understood to be pushing for an installation at Caerphilly.

Story by Jo Francis