Spectrum beefs up platemaking and digital capacity

Print Solutions

Growth in business across both litho and digital services has brought Spectrum Printing Services back to Heidelberg for a Linoprint CV press and a Suprasetter A 75 computer to plate device. Both are additional rather than replacement machines and both have just been delivered to the Leicester plant.

It is only two years since Spectrum Printing Services added a second Speedmaster XL 75. Its first was fitted with Axis Control but the second with Inpress Control colour and register control on the run has proved to be a ‘brilliant machine’ according to managing director Karl Nicholson.

Shorter timescales, reduced run lengths and an increase in business this year has led the company to invest in a supplementary Suprasetter A 75. It is equipped with fully automatic plate loading which means that when work is signed off, often at the end of each day, the CTP device can be left to output plates for the night shift.

The company is very environmentally aware (its last Speedmaster was supplied carbon neutralised) so the company has selected to run Saphira Chem-free plates.

A new bottom floor at the factory has created more office space but also a new digital room and the company is now on the look out for a digital operator.

‘I have run the Linoprint CV myself for four years but now it is time we had a dedicated digital operator who can work across both presses. It has been a good machine which is why we have come back to Heidelberg for the latest model,’ said Karl .

‘The Linoprint CV has a better feeder, is faster and can handle bigger sheets sizes (6pp A4 portrait or 4pp A4 landscape) and white or gloss coating. The digital market has grown and we need more volume.’