One of the largest commercial printers in Peterborough, Classic Printers has spent the last year ensuring that its offering gives customers one of the ‘greenest’ experiences possible, with its most recent investment being low chemistry Brillia HD PRO-V plates from Fujifilm.
John Taylor, managing director at Classic Printers, comments, “We feel it is our responsibility to make sure that wherever possible we are producing high quality and environmentally friendly print for our customers, and so have always kept abreast of the latest technology trends. In the last 12 months we’ve changed from using oil based ink to vegetable based ink, and have also gone completely alcohol free on our presses.
“When we found out the environmental savings that could be made in terms of chemistry and water usage associated with Fuji’s PRO-V plate, it was a natural step for us to switch to this lo-chem solution. With our previous plates we had to dispose of the developer we used to process them, and were also using a lot of water.
“In the 30 plus years we have been in business we have seen many advances in technology, one of which was the change to CTP. At the time, we studied a variety of the systems on the market, opting for a Fuji product, and have been extremely satisfied with the quality and service that Fuji has given us ever since. The high quality we have come to expect also applies to the PRO-V plate. Before we committed to the switch we made sure that we would be getting the same dot gain on press, and I would say that with the PRO-V plate we are seeing a slightly sharper dot.”
Brillia HD PRO-V is the latest Fujifilm plate designed to simplify the pre-press process, as it uses less chemistry, requires less maintenance of the finishing unit and produces less waste than its processed alternatives. In addition, the replenisher normally required to control the pH or conductivity of the bath is no longer needed. Thanks to Fujifilm’s ‘high sensitivity polymerisation’ technology, Brillia HD PRO-V also brings unmatched quality, consistency and productivity to plate production, being capable of 1-99% resolutions (with a Fujifilm “HD capable” platesetter), and able to print FM screens.
Classic Printers recently held an open house for its customers in order to demonstrate first hand all of the technology changes it has made in the last year. The PRO-V plate was one of the star attractions.