Prinect and Lotem

[Keri Callan]

I was just wondering if anyone is using a Lotem platesetter with the Heidelberg Prinect setup......

Thanks


Keri

 

[seejay]

Re: Prinect and Lotem

Hi Keri,

we have been using a lotem with Prinect for the last 3 years - no problems on 1030 size plates. However, doodlebut still cannot work out a fix to send 1050 plates to the same device.

We have had techies working on this for the last 12 - 18 months, but they still haven't worked out why we cannot do this.

Seejay

 

[Keri Callan]

Re: Prinect and Lotem

Thanks Seejay,

Can you elaborate on doodlebut (i am sure there is a good story here) and also 1030 vrs 1050 plates.

We have 40" plates and 29" plates. (?)

What is your current workaround for the plates which you cannot get to work!?

What workflow did you have which originally worked with the Lotem? We are currently switching from the Brisque workflow and exploring our options.......


Keri

 

[seejay]

Re: Prinect and Lotem

Doodlebug - this was our pet name for Heidelberg in my last office - (Heidelberg - doodleberg - doodlebug - doodlebut) - I guess you had to be there to get it.

40" - 1020mm
42" - 1055mm

Like you, we were previously running brisque to drive our Lotem, we were due to upgrade our workflow 3-4 years ago and in the end steered towards Heidelberg Prinect due to its connectivity with presses (we are an all heidelberg pressroom) and (in our view at the time) JDF potential. At the time we recognised that Lotem was coming to the end of its life and the majority of Creo/Kodak resources were being put into developing prinergy.
Price was another factor at the time as we were also purchasing a press.
As part of the deal we also purchased a Suprasetter - as such this is our 'workaround' for outputting the larger format plates. We are still optimistic that Heidelberg will get thing sorted re: lotem and 1055 plates - its just taking a lot longer than we had hoped for.

There were no major issues for us when switching from Brisque to Prinect. My only advice really is to make sure you have plenty of training built into the deal - ideally spread over a couple of months ie. initial training to get your prepress running with prinect effectively, then revisit training after 3-6 months in order to go into things a lot deeper.

Seejay

 

[Keri Callan]

Re: Prinect and Lotem

Yes we are looking at both the Prinect and the Prinergy at this time, but will have to make a decision soon....

Thank you for the training advice, that is a concern for us.

We currently have 4 operators who work primarily on the native files (indesign, quark, etc) then we have 5 operators who primarily rip, trap build preps layouts output proofs and plates.

This in various shifts over 24 hours, 7 days a week. It is still unclear whether the segregation will be phased out and if so, how long the learning curve will be between the two specialties.

Did you have a similar situation?

Keri

 

[Vee]

Re: Prinect and Lotem

With Signastation, you aren't going to need 5 heads doing Impo and proofing.
Not to mention that Printeready will do the trapping on the fly!

 

[Keri Callan]

Re: Prinect and Lotem

Hi,

We don't currently have 5 at one time....

we have 2 on day shift (in addition to the 2 "mac" operators),
1 on night shift (in addition to 1 "mac" operator),
1 on weekend shift (in addition to 1 "mac" operator)....

Just not sure if each operator will carry jobs through from disc to plate....
or if you will still need a dedicated person to handle all proofs and plates....

Obviously an old film stripper will not be typesetting an annual report and perhaps an old typesetter would not necessarily know press issues.....

any thoughts?

Also, do you have "planners" who would handle the preps templates?

Keri

 

[seejay]

Re: Prinect and Lotem

although we have separate CtP and DtP operators, there is a tremendous amount of overlap between the two. Printready lends itself to this. The nature of printready means that for us, it was inevitable that overlap would occur. So although the demarcation is still there between CtP and DtP, the boundaries are very much blurred.

With regard to the previous post once a template is set-up in signastation, the template can be worked on (i.e. proofed, plated, amended) by any operator with access to Prinect. So the templates are generated by the operators who used to run preps, but our DtP operators are also capable of generating templates.

Edited by: seejay on Jun 12, 2008 8:05 PM