BUI BURKE
Screen UK Sales Manager

“Readers should keep their eyes open for the quality and speed that is achieved by the Truepress Jet520 and take note of the technology in this area as it is developed further.”

OS: The Truepress DI offset press is gaining ground in the UK but just how relevant is the press to the high street market?
BB: The high street market is a perfect fit for the Truepress 344 which has only a five minute turnaround. It's a productive press for short-run four-colour work, delivering 200lpi litho quality results on substrates up to 300 microns. It is easy to use, compact and designed to be manned by one person. Automation is a key aspect too - the TruePress 344 monitors its own ink and water, fine tunes itself, washes up automatically, loads and images the next set of plates, and prints 7000 sheets per hour.

OS: What do you consider are the principle issues and needs of this sector?
BB: Flexibility - the printer needs to be able to handle varying run lengths from 200 up to 7,000 sheets, to be able to print a variety of products and critically, to make money. It's important that a press can process multiple short run jobs at high turnaround speeds with quick make ready times and litho quality results.

Ease of use would definitely be a consideration, the easier the system is to use, the more opportunity to have one operator involved from disk to finished printed sheet. Space is often an issue, so a single, compact, production unit is also important. All you need is a single DI press - not an offset press and CTP unit.

OS: Web-based services are increasingly important to the development of high street print businesses. How does Screen support this trend today?
BB: Screen is launching its latest easy-to-use web-to-print software at DPW that allows the print provider to set up and host an automated online ordering system for its customers, receive print orders and to remotely process orders via the web. This improves customer relationships and overall productivity as well as reducing job cycle times.

OS: What major trends/issues do you see taking place in this marketplace and where does that take you in terms of the solutions you aim to offer longer term?
BB: One trend we expect to see in this marketplace will be the so called ‘hub and spoke’ arrangement, whereby high street print centres will be able to offer a vast array of printed products at competitive prices without necessarily having all the different equipment on site.

For this to be achieved efficiently and economically the key is web-based printing, utilising trade equipment with the least possible administration. A Truepress 344 integrated via JDF with Screens ‘Rite Portal’ software is an excellent example of how this is achieved.

OS: What should readers’ be keeping their eyes open for over the next few months?
BB: Screen's Truepress Jet520, a full-colour variable printing system. Although possibly too high spec. for the high street market, readers should definitely keep their eyes open for the quality and speed that is achieved by this machine and take note of the technology in this area as it is developed further.

The Truepress Jet was developed to support the growing demand for high-speed variable data printing, the quality is superb, the process is straightforward and there are no click charges.

Back to top