Mail, marketing, and print provider Finsbury Green has completed a three-part ten year investment in colour management on its Heidelberg B1 presses, halving its makeready times in the process.
Finsbury is now running PrintFlow closed-loop colour control, Techkon colour measuring and Mellow Colour PrintSpec reporting, all supplied by Colour Graphic Services, on its Heidelberg CD 102 six colour and CD 102 five colour. Both presses were purchased in the early 2000s.
Robbie D’Angelo, national manufacturing manager, Finsbury Green, says, “Around the time of the GFC, we started looking at our presses and whether we should upgrade, but the high capex and uncertainty of the times made us ask what can we do with or existing presses? It was around this time that we made contact with Colour Graphics Services and David Crowther.
"We revisited it more recently, and looked our options, moving forward with the economic times. To make improvements we decided to retrofit the Techkon scanners. For us as a business, it gives us a greater scope of control for colour management, repeat jobs, consistency of our product to the end customer, while reducing makeready times.
"We measure our bottom line through EBITDA, and we felt this investment would improve it by allowing us to take on more work, saving overtime, and increasing capacity at a lower operational cost.
“Now we are able to be more responsive, accept even shorter runs because of less make-ready time reduce waste even further and guarantee our customers get predictable, consistent colour. The remarkable thing is, we have achieved all this – with David’s guidance of course – on our existing presses with our legacy workflow – Prinergy 8.1 and with minimal disruption to the running of the business.”
Peter Orel, managing director, Finsbury Green, says, “We have been pleased with the result, and particularly buoyed by the fact it has exceeding our expectations from our ROI calculations. Our ROI for all of our colour management investment has come in either budget, or exceeding our calculations.”
The project began with Finsbury Green’s Adelaide and Melbourne production sites achieving Mellow Colour ISO 12647-2 Proficient Printer certification, reducing waste and getting the best ISO standard colour out of existing presses.
The installation includes two Techkon SpectroDrive scanning press-side spectrophotometers for total accuracy in measuring colour bars, Mellow Colour Flatline modules for PrintSpec to enable the press-side data generated by the Techkon SpectroDrives to be input to PrintSpec for ISO 12647-2:2013 reporting and the Printflow DC software interfaces for each press.
David Crowther, owner, Colour Graphic Services, says, "As the six-monthly ISO audits took place, measurable continuous improvement took place across prepress, proofing, plate making and on presses. Viewing conditions were standardised to ISO 3664 and ISO 12647-2 reporting using Mellow Colour’s PrintSpec application ensured that procedures, colour measurement, training and records were gathered and collated.
“When the trial period ended, Finsbury Green’s make-ready times were cut by half and colour consistency improved for all short, medium and long run jobs. Being happy with the results, Finsbury Green ordered two Printflow systems, with the second one completed on the CD 102-5c by early 2018. The overall project has delivered tangible benefits to the business. We have also implemented the latest ISO 12647-2:2013 colour standard.”
Finsbury Green was started by the late Ernie Orel in 1973, with sons Mark and Peter now running the business. The company is pro-active in environmental management, with 97 per cent of all inks and varnishes used being vegetable-based.
Isopropyl alcohol has all but been eliminated from production; electricity is managed using advanced voltage optimisation and Power Factor Correction, with zero waste sent to landfill.
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