Danish printer Kandrup recently converted to Agfa’s breakthrough process-free printing plate Eclipse. They value the fact that the plate keeps their press clean, on top of its great contrast and scratch resistance.
Kandrup Bogtrykkeri A/S is a family-owned company with nearly hundred years of history, located in the Danish capital Copenhagen. The company handles a variety of short-run commercial print jobs, both in offset and in digital printing. They also take care of layouting and finishing tasks. Kandrup has been an Agfa customer for more than ten years and owns a full-fletched Agfa prepress solution, consisting of a platesetter, printing plates with matching fountain solution, as well as workflow, impositioning and quality enhancement software.
Impressive performance
Following an extensive testing phase, during which Kandrup could also feedback its experiences to Agfa, the printing company converted from its previous process-free plate to the new process-free printing plate Eclipse, together with the ANTURA fount AFS2-H, in the autumn of 2019. “The plate has a good and stable contrast. There are absolutely no mix-ups on press,” says company owner Thomas Thomsen. “Its scratch resistance is great too, and we see no fingerprints on the plate.”
"The plate has a good and stable contrast. There are absolutely no mix-ups on press. Its scratch resistance is great too, and we see no fingerprints on the plate."
Thomas Thomsen, company owner Kandrup
Thomsen is enthusiastic concerning the plate’s performance on press too. “We see significant improvements there. Our estimate is that start-up is 40% faster than before. We don’t need to waste time and money on remakes or unforeseen interruptions on press. The plates are just running perfectly. Paper waste at start-up is also about 15% lower. In addition, the combination of the Eclipse plate with the ANTURA fount yields a more stable ink/water balance and a higher latitude in printing.”
Eclipse cleans up on press with the paper, minimalizing press pollution. As a consequence, bath life is extended and maintenance made easy. Thomsen: “There is no sludge in the press tank, as the coating gets transferred to the first sheets of paper, out of the press. As a result, we need less cleaning of the filters of the fountain system. He adds: “The fount’s bath life more than doubled with Eclipse. We estimate a yearly saving on this of 25%.”
Enhanced color consistency
Since a couple of years, Kandrup has also been using Agfa’s InkTune software, which is part of Agfa’s ECO³ approach. The software improves both image quality and color consistency, while also saving ink – by replacing part of the CMY inks with black ink. “InkTune brings us a number of benefits in production. With InkTune, we see better color stability during press runs, especially on uncoated paper. We also see less set-off thanks to the thinner ink layer and the resulting faster drying. I should add, though, that the above-mentioned improvements also stem from the intense cooperation with Agfa’s Plate Support System team and their help in optimizing our press curves.”
Thomsen highly values the service and support Kandrup gets from the Agfa team. “The people at Agfa discuss new trends and developments with us, give us advice, make proposals and share tip and tricks. We have an excellent cooperation. The products are reliable and the service is superb – for hardware, printing plates and software. It is very important for us to have a partner who understands us, who can help us – remote or on-site – and who is always there for us.”
