Me & My: Viostar FA8

Describe your company.
Established in 1972, we have been into educational publishing, exclusively publishing textbooks. We convert around 600 to 800 tonnes of paper per annum. We used to outsource our print jobs before we set up our own printing plant at Palghar in 2010, which is equipped with a web offset press, iCTP, a CTP and complete post-press solution from trimmers to book binding.
 
What does the machine do?
The violet technology TechNova Viostar FA8 powered by FFEI fires anywhere around 1500-2000 plates per month.
 
Why did you choose this particular machine?
When we decided to invest in a platesetter three years ago, violet was the newest technology that was available and opting for the latest technology was a no brainer.
 
Did you look at any other similar machine?
Yes we looked at other available technology options like thermal and UV CTP, however looking at the kind of jobs we do ranging 3000 to 75,000 impressions and the substrate we use, we wanted a robust technology and hence violet was the obvious choice.
 
Why did you make the purchase?
Once we made the switch to a web offset press, enhancing our printing capacity, we knew we would have to enhance our pre-press capacity, too. Thus we obtained this platesetter with the two-pronged objective of boosting capacity and taking a major load off the existing iCTP.
 
What features do you particularly like?
The options to save back-ups. If we require a single plate from the entire layout of the book, it can easily be done with this CTP.

Is there anything you wish it had that it doesn’t?
So far so good. It has been close to four years and so far we haven’t had any opportunity to complain.

How fast is it?
The CTP fires about 8-10 plates in an hour. It can reach the maximum speed of 20 plates an hour. But we have never required it to function at such a speed.

How reliable is it?
Totally reliable. Over the course of the last four years the CTP has never misfired or suffered a single breakdown.

What’s the quality like?
The quality that this CTP offers is pretty good irrespective of our quality requirements. We regularly do our two-colour text pages and four-colour covers using this CTP and it has always passed our clients' test of quality.

How much time or money has it saved?
When we used to outsource our printing, the entire cycle from making a soft-copy, getting it processed and finally printing it took five to six days. With the help of this CTP, we have eliminated most of these time consuming step. It’s now done in a matter of hours.   

Has it won you any new work?
Thanks to our CTP we have been able to increase our speed of production. Today, we are able to print 30% more, that is about 70-100 more textbooks per semester.
 
Would you say that it offers value for money?
We only have one deadline a year (start of academic year) and the speed that it offers is definitely value for money.
 
What about the pre- and after- sales service?
The service provided by TechNova has been up to the mark.
 
Who do you think the machine is right for?
Anyone who has volumes to work with should opt for CTPs. The volumes doesn’t necessarily mean print-run volumes it also includes number of jobs.
 
Under what circumstances would you invest in another?
I would opt for another CTP only when I have trouble with the current machine or if I am planning a major expansion to my printing capacity.