Describe your business
Wyndeham Heron is the Wyndeham Group’s flagship offset printer. Based in Maldon, Essex, it has five high-speed web presses on which it prints B2B and consumer magazines as well as catalogues and brochures.

What does the machine do?
The Agfa Avalon N36s produce plates for our Lithoman and Rotoman presses using their Platemanager option and can plate Lithoman sets of eight plates in 35 minutes and Rotoman sets of 16 plates in 34 minutes. We bought two.

Why did you choose this machine?
It can supply plates to all our presses to a very high standard.

Did you look at other machines?
Yes, we looked at Fuji machines, but found Agfa were supplying the same product which could be put together in a complete finance package including our front-end systems.

Why did you make this purchase?
Our company needed to change its working practices. These machines have to fit into our workflow, the demands of production and keep up with the press hall. Last-minute changes to weekly schedules can be very stressful, but these machines take the stress away.

What features do you particularly like?
As our two N36s are set up identically, we can halve the plate time. The Platemanager is more user-friendly when loading the large-format Lithoman plates, which are awkward to handle and easy to damage.

Is there anything you dislike?
Nothing. I’m very impressed.

Is there anything that you wish they had?
No, these machines provide everything we need so why complicate by adding unnecessary bolt-ons?

How reliable are the machines?
We had a settling in period to fix some minor tweaks and were up to full production in two weeks.

What’s the quality like?
The quality is excellent and consistent.

How easy are they to use?
The N36 is extremely easy to use. The devices on the N36 are driven by the Agfa Platemanager application and as we use Apogee and Portal, the software is of similar design.

How much time or money have they saved?
These machines have replaced five different devices previously needed to support our press hall. We entered into a contract with Agfa to supply all the kit, including our front-end application, continuous upgrades and a service contract to provide us with up to date technology for a monthly fee.

Have they won your company any new work?
These machines haven’t won us anymore work directly, but have certainly given us confidence with tight deadlines.

Would you say it offers value for money?
Yes. Great product – ticks all the boxes.

Were there any difficulties experienced during the installation or after?
No. Agfa supplied and installed both machines in two months. They also provided loan machines to continue production while the old devices were being dismantled. The service was excellent and Agfa provides 24-hour support.

Who do you think these machines are right for?
These units are right for any sheetfed or web print company using digital workflow in a very demanding environment.

Under what circumstances would you buy another?
These machines offer enough capacity to allow our business to grow without the need to install another machine.

Conclusion
User’s verdict   
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Value for money ????

Supplier’s response    
John Wood, systems specialist at Agfa says: The Avalon N VLF range covers a wide variety of sizes and productivity. The machine-matched N36 engines at Wyndeham Heron are equipped with dual plate imaging to increase productivity, and the four cassette platemanagers provide automation for their different plate size requirements. Agfa’s proposal was for reliable engines matched to a richly featured and integrated Apogee Pre-Press and Portal Workflow. This, together with Elite plates and the correct financial and support packages, has enabled us to continue a long and fruitful partnership with the Wyndeham Group.
Price £193,000-£395,000
Contact Agfa Graphics 020 8231 4929