Who images plates?

[prepressdork]

Hi everyone,

I am curious who images plates in your company. Do you have a dedicated plate making person? Do you have the pressroom do it? Is a prepress person responsible for plating their own work?

If that last one is the case, how do you manage/coordinate that among multiple prepress people (assuming you have multiple prepress people)?

Thank you,
pd

 

[giant1958]

HERE...it's prepress...mostly me....(3 person dept)

 

[Fatboysmart]

Press room does the plates... they know when they need which plate, and in what order.
We use Heidelberg Prinect with the MetaShooter, which means I (prepress) send the files through the RIP and to the shooter (separate PC). There the files are shown in a list, and the pressroom just clicks and hits start for a plate to be imaged.

Of course on busy days I step in and image some plates for them.

 

[dabob]

We are a smallish shop and I am the pre-press person . . . my brother imposes the plates and starts imagingj and when the beeper starts I go change the plates - or if its beeping the pressman can also pull and place plates . . . .

 

[DCurry]

My shop has 2 main prepress guys (including me), and we just plate whatever is on tomorrow's schedule, making sure to update the schedule that a job has been plated or is ready to plate. I usually leave earlier in the day, so we just touch base with each other about any plates that are running or need to be run. Our manager is often here later in the evening, so sometimes he'll send some plates if there's a rush or emergency. For remakes, our pressmen know how to find which plate they need in the queue and re-image it. Our platesetter is fully automated, so no one needs to stand around feeding plates.

I have worked at a shop that had a dedicated plate person, but that shop's CTP was completely manually fed.

 

[giant1958]

WAIT....you have a schedule?....wow...wish we did.....ours is by the seat of the pressroom managers pants

 

[pixeltim]

WAIT....you have a schedule?....wow...wish we did.....ours is by the seat of the pressroom managers pants

No matter what they say and how hard they try, it always ends up being seat of the pants!

 

[DCurry]

Yes, we do have a schedule, and for the most part we stick to it. There are frequently last-minute changes, of course. The Kodak Sonora plates are pretty sensitive to light, so we try not to plate too far ahead.

 

[prepressdork]

Anyone else?

 

[almaink]

I send the plates over to the platesetter and either put the plates in myself, or have a pressman do it if they have nothing else to do.

 

[Lester]

We used to have one guy dedicated to making plates, taking care of processor, etc. Just recently it has changed.
Now, the Prepress/Pressroom Supervisor and our 2 prepress operators (myself included) are all responsible.
Our Supervisor, so far, seems to be handling the bulk of it.
When he's off, busy with other responsibilities, or wants us to handle it, he'll let us know.
All approved jobs go to a "ready to plate" rack and we have a press schedule as a guide.

 

[agrant1012]

6 person pre-press dept, we all plate our own jobs to 3 different plate/film setters. Plated 2+ days before any job is due to ship out.

 

[Saulius]

In our prepress department we have 3 persons for plate making and ctp maintenance only. They work in 3 shifts and the schedule is to produce plates for 1 shift ahead.

 

[jcallison]

At our company, plates are made in prepress. We have about 6 people in prepress on day side and a smaller crew at night. We want pressmen focusing 100% on keeping the presses moving, not fiddling with plates. As soon as one job is off, they have the next set of plates ready when needed. We do not have a person dedicated to making plates. We have a "to do" rack in prepress and plating jobs are mixed in with prep jobs. The prep supervisor prioritizes jobs in the rack according to the press and proof schedule (which changes frequently throughout the day). Sometimes, whoever is working on the least critical prep job (and that could be the supervisor) may have to stop and plate. We have 2, 40-inch, 2, 28-in, and 3 small presses that run 24-hr, 6-7 days a week. Our prepress has a mixture of quad and traditional shifts; the pressroom is all on quad shifts (12-hr, 3-day weeks). Hope that helps.

 

[JimBob53]

Mostly me, I am the only person in prepress... When I am not here the head pressman can feed the machine.

 

[aqazi81]

We mostly have a dedicated plate person who prepares plates. Later in the evening, pressroom supervisor is responsible for the plates.

 

[semi-tech]

My shop has 2 main prepress guys (including me), and we just plate whatever is on tomorrow's schedule, making sure to update the schedule that a job has been plated or is ready to plate. I usually leave earlier in the day, so we just touch base with each other about any plates that are running or need to be run. Our manager is often here later in the evening, so sometimes he'll send some plates if there's a rush or emergency. For remakes, our pressmen know how to find which plate they need in the queue and re-image it. Our platesetter is fully automated, so no one needs to stand around feeding plates.

I have worked at a shop that had a dedicated plate person, but that shop's CTP was completely manually fed.

This is what we do, too. Generally we each plate whatever job we've prepped, but depending upon the job, it doesn't matter who plates it. We don't have staggered shifts, though, and the platesetter isn't automated.

 

[wonderings]

We have 2 people in prepress, small family print shop. Both of us make plates for our own jobs, or the other will make plates for my jobs if I am do busy.

I do the maintenance as well on our CTP.

 

[Sev]

Anyone else?

Our shop is a two person prepress, my self being one of them. Most of the time we plate our own jobs, but there are times when I will plate jobs that I did not work on, and the other way around. The press operators never make their own plates, unless its a remake, that is in the Prinergy que, and its after hours. Our CTP is manual feed, but is very fast (not much time for standing around) and is chem-free. We have job baskets, with one basket for jobs that are ready to plate (proofs have been approved) and another basket for jobs that have been sent to Prinergy (the tiff catcher) and ready to send to the Trendsetter CTP.
We in prepress do a bit of everything, such as sometimes create/design jobs, all of the preflight and file repair, imposition, proofing, plating, and run the digital presses.

-Sev