Testimonials

When it became the beta site for Xeikon’s latest high speed web press, CS Labels knew it needed to up the pace in prepress too. It turned to MyPressXpert to find a way with software.

Being at the forefront of technology innovation brings its own pressures. At CS Labels in Willenhall, near Wolverhampton, innovation is seen as a point of differentiation, and that spirit saw it become a beta site for Xeikon’s new 30 metres per minute Cheetah press in March. Managing Director, Simon Smith, says that it is faster than other Xeikon presses (CS Labels is the largest reel-fed Xeikon house in Europe with five machines). Therein lay the issue.

The company had met MyPressXpert Sales Director Kevin Caughtry at an EasyFairs event in February. They then spoke to Niall Coady from the colour calibration firm shortly afterwards at a Xeikon Café. During their talk, they recognized that there could be ways to simplify and improve the workflow at CS Labels as well as reduce errors in prepress.

Initial solution

Initially, Mr. Coady worked on developing a customised, simplified report for the CS Labels sales team that showed the ink consumption required for a file received. Thus, allowing him to provide an accurate quote on the job. It would also preflight the file and report on any fixes that needed to be made, allowing this to be done by the customer before it took up studio time. A second, more detailed, report and client proof PDF was also produced for the studio. This was all achieved to CS Labels’ satisfaction using callas pdfToolbox Server and pdfChip software (HTML5, CSS and Javascript technologies used to automate client proof creation) alongside Filetrain, a workflow management system from Laidback Solutions.

ZePrA + ReProfiler Digital 

Following this, MyPressXpert further undertook project work for CS Labels. This required creating a brand new job management system for the Xeikon workflow from scratch, which interrogates an Excel (.xlsx) file from the client and automatically creates and databases all the label barcodes based on sites and quantities. It also installed a colour management software system – ColorLogic’s ZePrA colour management server and ReProfiler Digital colour engine. Thus helping to improve CS Labels’ management of process control and calibration of the Xeikon engines. It also provided detailed reporting on the stability of the presses thereby optimizing the maintenance schedules. This became effective to such a degree that in September the label producer stopped using the colour control system that came with the Xeikon presses.

“All digital presses face the challenge of colour consistency from print run to print run, and we also need to ensure that our presses are optimized to achieve Pantone colours,” said Mr Smith. “Invariably we are given a label to match by printing CMYK. We need to get as close as possible to achieving the Pantones consistently and measure how close in Delta E we are. This system has helped us to do that. We are of the opinion that it actually takes it to a different level.“

Results of implementing colour management

The impact of these implementations of automated preflighting and colour management within the company is that CS Labels is able to cope with higher volumes of work while utilizing the same level of human resources. “We are also shortening lead times to get work on press and we are getting far fewer mistakes where files have to go back to the studio,” Mr Smith continued. “It has streamlined the whole process for us and allows the studio to move away from more mundane tasks such as putting the bleed on a hundred files – those things are automated now. The system also automates the artwork and sends a proof back to the customer. The ideal is that we get a PDF from our customer and it goes straight on press without a human touching it. That’s what we are looking for, and we are making fairly substantial progress.“

All progress in this direction is welcome, because in December a second Cheetah press will arrive, and further efficiencies will need to be found. “This has been a steep learning curve but a very worthwhile process,” Mr Smith concluded. “The biggest benefit is that we have been able to make this system bespoke to our unique requirements, rather than buying one off the shelf.”

This article appeared originally in the November 2015 issue of Digital Printer magazine.