The Cannington facility has saved 300 litres of water per day since installing the Pro-T3 plates in March, said pre-press manager Glen Lazenby.

The plates are rated at 200 lines per inch, but Lazenby said the 80-person hub had been getting good results at 250lpi.

"We put them on the press and were immediately impressed with their sharpness. Because there’s no chemistry or processing involved, the dot is a lot sharper. The dot gain characteristics were good, and we had no problems at all," he said.

"We don’t get the variation that we used to get on our old plates. They’re very stable; we match the dot gain to within 2% every time.

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"The image quality is very sharp and crisp. In fact, the dots were literally too sharp. When we first put them on the press we could actually see the edges of the square dot screen, so we actually changed over to a round dot screen just to smooth them out a bit."

Arnold Whiteside, managing director of the Cannington site, said the plates had helped the hub cut costs, improve quality and enhance its green credentials.

The site achieved FSC certification in 2008, became carbon neutral in 2012 and is currently installing a 100kW solar power system after receiving a $147,000 grant from the Clean Technology Investment Program, he said.

"The solar power project will be cost-neutral in five years and cost-beneficial after that. It’s a stance we’re taking to be a more community-minded business," he said.

"There are also some commercial advantages in it, and we hope that other like-minded businesses seek out our services, particularly on the carbon neutral side of things, especially if they are auditing their own footprint. This is a long-term strategy for us."

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