Printers Extend Life of Offset Presses and Trim Costs with Alwan Print Standardizer

By Alwan: Print houses can now deliver standardized production without investing in new offset presses thanks to Alwan Color Expertise, the graphic industry’s leading color standardization company. Alwan has opened its Print Standardizer to popular automatic scanning technologies including X-Rite IntelliTrax, ATS, Komori DCS II and Heidelberg’s Image Control – ensuring international standards are within reach of all printers. Implementing Alwan Print Standardizer is simple and only takes a few hours, plus standards are guaranteed for every job.

Says Elie Khoury, Alwan’s founder and CEO: “In these cost-conscious times, it’s refreshing to hear that you don’t need to invest in expensive new presses to significantly boost the quality and productivity of your set-up. Alwan’s policy has always been about helping printers get the most from their existing equipment. Print Standardizer gives offset presses unequaled stability, ensures that they work at maximum capacity, and delivers results that are compliant with applicable international standards such as ISO 12647-2.”

Alwan Print Standardizer now includes Dynamic Press Calibration (DPC)
Press dot gain is the toughest variable to control and stabilize on the press. But this age-old issue is now a thing of the past with Alwan’s Dynamic Press Calibration (DPC), an automated dot-gain compensation technology. The solution tracks dot gain for each press and paper combination, and automatically compensates for any drift during the day or over longer periods, ensuring production always remains within given specifications.

Accurate dot-gain correction curves are calculated and applied automatically either to the output files or exported directly to the plate setter. Alwan Print Standardizer also continually assesses the press calibration state and issues local and remote warnings when something is wrong in the printing process. For example, an ink problem, excessively high or low dot gain on a unit, imbalance in dot gain between units etc.

In addition to DPC, Alwan Print Standardizer also incorporates the 2008 InterTech award-winning Dynamic DeviceLinks® technology. Print Standardizer enables printers to reduce make-ready times, match clients’ standard proofs, and dramatically cut waste paper and ink consumption. The impact of the solution is impressive – overall pressroom productivity and profitability typically increases by an average of 15%.

André Menet, Printing Plant Director of the leading French newspaper Le Figaro, fully supports Alwan’s vision on standardization: “Ten years ago, Alwan advised us to keep our presses when we were going to invest in more modern machines. We trusted their advice and instead installed Alwan file and print standardization solutions, as well as process control tools. Since then our presses haven’t faltered and churn out millions of copies every week.”

Mr. Menet continues: “Since implementing the Alwan solutions our production has been fully compliant with ISO 12647 standards. Plus because our operators were trained by Alwan to work according to PSO/ISO requirements, we received IFRA Color-Quality Club Certification on our first application. Having this endorsement has helped us attract advertisers. With the Alwan solutions, we never experience any quality issues or delays, paper and ink wastage has been minimized, and our ROI has been fast. Also today, Alwan remains a trusted partner we have called upon once again to help us standardize our new KBA Cortina waterless presses.”