SubscribeGMG FlexoProof Provides for Fast, Accurate Contract Proofs
Leading flexographic plate producer Brownett Limited, Derby, United Kingdom, has installed GMG’s FlexoProof software in order to provide customers with accurate, reproduceable proofs of jobs prior to platemaking. The software and installation support were provided by GMG dealer CT & Line, which specialises in providing proofing products for the flexographic sector.
Brownett Ltd, which manufactures some 75 to 100 flexo plates per day, invested in the GMG system after a detailed analysis of all of the options currently available. “Traditionally, we had used a high-end analogue system for producing proofs,” said managing director Mark Brownett. “These were expensive and time consuming to produce, and so the advent of straightforward digital prints was a great benefit to us and our clients. The issue then was producing color accurate proofs.
“Having reviewed all of the leading systems on the market, GMG’s FlexoProof was the only product to give us all of the advantages that we were looking for: low cost consumables and printer hardware, combined with color accuracy and proof results that could be reproduced on a flexo press. Too often in our search we found products that produced a very eye-catching, high-quality proof – which could appeal to some customers – but would be impossible for the press minder to replicate during the actual print run.”
With the GMG proofing RIP Brownett can go through a “finger print” process with a customer to create a totally unique proofing profile for that company’s press, which takes all of the major variables of flexography into consideration. The process includes two sets of plates featuring test images. The first plate set is run by the customer and the results returned to Brownett. They take readings from the printed copies to provide information on dot-gain and basic density values.
This information is used in the creation of the second set of test plates, which, when printed, will be scanned into the GMG software via the integrated Gretag Macbeth ICColour spectrophotometer. The second test job provides the RIP with details about the presses ability to reproduce color. The results of the two runs are combined to create a customer profile which will be used to proof jobs for that client, matching the color capabilities of the press and replicating exactly the dot gain that needs to be accounted for.
Commenting on this ability to produce bespoke profiles, Mark Brownett added: “This routine sounds quite complex, but it does mean that we get a proof that is very accurately matched to our customers printing capabilities.
Experience, however, has already shown us that for many tasks a series of standard “label” and “packaging” profiles that we have created for use with some of the main substrates encountered within the industry provide very good results for a large proportion of the work that we undertake.”
Colin Taylor, technical director at supplier CT & Line, commenting on the installation, said, “Mark and his team were keen to find a proofing solution that provided realistic results.
The GMG system allows for very detailed “finger-printing” of the customers press, which means that when the customers signs-off on a GMG proof, that’s exactly what gets printed. That includes all the detail – right down to screened images. The GMG proof will replicate exactly the screen ruling and angle that will be used on press and will appear within the final print.”
Brownett Limited came into being in September 2003 following a management buyout by Mark and partner Vicky of the origination and platemaking unit at Gerhardt, the cutting tool specialists.
“Platemaking was always a side-line at Gerhardt, whose main business was in providing cutting tools for both the printing industry and other markets. We were able to take the factory unit next to Gerhardt and recruit all of the origination and platemaking team as well as taking the existing equipment as part of the buyout. We now employ 22 personnel within a 6,000 square foot facility – a site which we will be purchasing outright in the very near future,” said Mark Brownett. The company has grown steadily in the two years since the buyout, and Mark and his team are looking to make further equipment investments in the near future.