Me & My: Cron UVP 4648Ex

Describe your company...
Indigo Press offers end-to-end solutions to print buyers for their print and innovation requirements.  With all the facilities from digital platemaking to finished products, we offer comprehensive solutions. We specialise in magazine printing and have recently invested in a pre-owned KBA Rapida 105.

Why did you choose this particular platesetter?
We did a comprehensive return-on-investment (ROI) analysis and actual print trials of plates from thermal, violet  and UV-platesetter while deciding on CTP technology to be used.  The Cron UV-CTP was producing 250 line screen on UV plates with ease, which were almost 30% cheaper than thermal or violet plates and it made the ROI very attractive.
 
Did you look at any other similar platesetter?
There are other producers of UV digital platesetter like Luscher (working on internal drum),  Basysprint (working on flatbed technology) and Cron (working on external drum technology). In our opinion, we felt that the external drum technology was the most comfortable to work with.
 
Why did you make the purchase?
As one more step to provide our customers seamless service under one roof right from platemaking to final finishing.
 
What features do you particularly like?
The Cron CTP with online Glunz & Jenson processor and the workflow is smoothly interlinked creating a very pleasant working environment and reducing operator interaction and pressure.
 
Is there anything that you dislike?
The perception created by earlier UV-CTP platesetters that the technology is not very stable is wrong. I can now confidently say that the requirements of 98% of commercial and publication print market can be exceeded at a significantly lower cost by the Cron UV platesetters and TechNova’s plates working together.

How fast is it?
We have taken a 48 laser machine which can produce upto 24 plates of 28x40-inch per hour.
 
How reliable is it?
Extremely reliable, the only time an engineer comes is for periodic preventive maintenance check every three months.
 
What’s the quality like?
Excellent. We regularly print a line screen of 225 and sometimes depending on the job we also use 250.

How much time or money has it saved?
The machine has further improved our ability to adhere to crazy deadlines. Now we execute jobs at the very last moment.  The savings in cost of plates will pay for the machine in less than 20 months.

Has it won you any new work?
Yes, as we are more competitive now and as the word spreads around, we are getting a steady flow of new clients looking for great products at competitive pricing.
 
Would you say that it offers value for money?
Although the initial cost of the equipment is a little higher than the thermal platesetters, the amount of savings on plate cost makes the machine an extremely good value for money investment.

Were there any difficulties experienced during the installation or after?
No,  the pre-delivery site preparation by Nippon Color and their engineers, made the entire process a smooth run.

What about the pre and after-sale service?
The excellent knowledge of the Nippon team about its product offerings and understanding of the print market is absolutely commendable. Jayant Pardiwala offered us the precise product for our needs.  As far as after-sales service have not really required much off it.

Under what circumstances would you buy another?
If a requirement of additional capacity arises than Cron platesetter would an obvious and easy choice.