Me & My: Fujifilm Alinte 8e+

Describe your company...
Bangalore Offset Printers was  established in 1987 by me (S Ganesh Kumar) and my brother S Karunakaran. We are a commercial print firm catering to print requirements of banks, hospitals, schools etc. Our print facility houses two four-colour 28x40-inch sheetfed press from Komori and Mitsubishi which serves all long run and bulk print jobs. The Komori 19x26 four-colour press serves all the short run jobs. The shopfloor also has two two-colour Mitsubishi and a single-colour Polygraph press.

Why did you choose this particular platesetter?
We are basically into the offset segment catering to both long runs as well as short-run quality jobs, with utmost priority given to quality hence we wanted a CTP machine. We found these qualities in Fujifilm violet CTP system.

Did you look at any other similar platesetter?
We were initially looking at thermal platesetters, however, after trying with some trial runs we were much satisfied with violet technology for its value for money and its negligible maintenance cost which was most important as per our requirement.

Why did you make the purchase?
We were initially outsourcing the pre-press process due to which we were not able to give timely service to our clients; now with in-house platesetter we are able to provide on-time service to all our clients.

What features do you particularly like?
I was impressed with its integration with Fujifilm XMF workflow software. This makes most of the work lot easier. Any kind of book work and commercial jobs can be made ready to print format with much ease.

Is there anything that you dislike?
The machine needs to be operated under yellow lighting conditions, which we feel is slightly inconvenient.

How fast is it?
The speed is good enough to meet our work load requirements. The output is 22 plates per hours of 800x1030 and 40 plates per hour of 560x670.

What’s the quality like?
It is satisfactory. The quality in printing and the sharpness is good. The on-press performance of plates has been quite impressive with reduction in makeready time leading to increase in productivity.

How much time or money has it saved?
The speed of the machine has saved us time in the pre-press, which helps us in fast production and prioritising the jobs. Since the plates are made in-house the makeready times are faster, we make atleast two to three jobs more in every shift.

Has it won you any new work?
Thanks to the improved speed to market, we presently are the fastest and most preferred printers in Bengaluru, when it comes to printing of short quantity and deliveries in the shortest time.

Would you say that it offers value for money?
We are located in the heart of the city wherein cost is of utmost priority, hence we have definitely observed increase value for our money.

What about the pre and after-sale service?
The service provided by Fujiflim before and after service was and is very good and appreciable.

Who do you think the machine is right for?
The machine is for the people who wants sharpness in printing with utmost quality and for long run length jobs.

Under what circumstances would you buy another?
The moment we expand our unit, we would definitely add another machine.