Druckhaus Cramer, Greven: Top Quality Right Along the Line
"Superb printing is not a matter of chance" - at
Druckhaus Cramer, based in Greven in the West of Germany, it is the
result of an end-to-end workflow solution with cutting-edge color
management. This delivers maximum process reliability thanks to
ongoing process monitoring and control.
Druckhaus Cramer is a long-established company that ensures customer satisfaction, even when demands are extremely high. Its product portfolio ranges from art catalogs and color charts to annual reports. "We were looking for a color workflow that offered genuine integration of prepress and the pressroom, enabling us to satisfy these high demands with proven quality at all times," explains General Manager Sebastian Löw, outlining the main requirements. The company found what it was looking for with Prinect - the print shop workflow from Heidelberg.
Druckhaus Cramer is a long-established company that ensures customer satisfaction, even when demands are extremely high. Its product portfolio ranges from art catalogs and color charts to annual reports. "We were looking for a color workflow that offered genuine integration of prepress and the pressroom, enabling us to satisfy these high demands with proven quality at all times," explains General Manager Sebastian Löw, outlining the main requirements. The company found what it was looking for with Prinect - the print shop workflow from Heidelberg.
Coloring standard quickly achieved
Prinect integrates all processes and equipment in a standardized end-to-end concept from a single source, thereby ensuring synchronized workflows across the board. "With Prinect, we were able to network the presses seamlessly with prepress. We felt that this solution offered the best prospects for avoiding errors, minimizing makeready times, and achieving color standards more efficiently," states Löw. Presses are now preset automatically based on prepress data. As a result, the first pull is already very close to the defined coloring standard and only minor corrections are required before the production run.
Reproducible precision landing instead of flying blind
"Just like our customers' products, our own products always need to outperform those of the competition," continues Löw. However, reproducibe high quality requires excellent process reliability - and this is based on the work with standards combined with ongoing process monitoring and control. New technology from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG optimizes process monitoring at Druckhaus Cramer and automatically steers the process back in the right direction if it deviates from the standards. Small color measuring elements called Mini Spots are placed on the print sheet and evaluated spectrophotometrically throughout the printing process with the Prinect Image Control measuring system. These can be used to optimize the process if key parameters change. Switching to a new batch of ink or to a different paper thus no longer poses a problem. "Laborious and time-consuming manual setting has often previously been needed in an attempt to achieve the required tonal values in print, but now the process is under control before printing even starts," explains Production Manager Thorsten Noetzel, who is responsible for the pressroom.
Precise identification of errors - without guesswork
The closed loop of the Prinect color workflow now enables deviations and their causes to be identified quickly and unambiguously. "Instead of trial and error, we offer extremely stable, documented quality. That reassures both our customers and ourselves. In any event, everything is much calmer in the pressroom since the workflow was introduced," reports Löw.
Prinect integrates all processes and equipment in a standardized end-to-end concept from a single source, thereby ensuring synchronized workflows across the board. "With Prinect, we were able to network the presses seamlessly with prepress. We felt that this solution offered the best prospects for avoiding errors, minimizing makeready times, and achieving color standards more efficiently," states Löw. Presses are now preset automatically based on prepress data. As a result, the first pull is already very close to the defined coloring standard and only minor corrections are required before the production run.
Reproducible precision landing instead of flying blind
"Just like our customers' products, our own products always need to outperform those of the competition," continues Löw. However, reproducibe high quality requires excellent process reliability - and this is based on the work with standards combined with ongoing process monitoring and control. New technology from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG optimizes process monitoring at Druckhaus Cramer and automatically steers the process back in the right direction if it deviates from the standards. Small color measuring elements called Mini Spots are placed on the print sheet and evaluated spectrophotometrically throughout the printing process with the Prinect Image Control measuring system. These can be used to optimize the process if key parameters change. Switching to a new batch of ink or to a different paper thus no longer poses a problem. "Laborious and time-consuming manual setting has often previously been needed in an attempt to achieve the required tonal values in print, but now the process is under control before printing even starts," explains Production Manager Thorsten Noetzel, who is responsible for the pressroom.
Precise identification of errors - without guesswork
The closed loop of the Prinect color workflow now enables deviations and their causes to be identified quickly and unambiguously. "Instead of trial and error, we offer extremely stable, documented quality. That reassures both our customers and ourselves. In any event, everything is much calmer in the pressroom since the workflow was introduced," reports Löw.
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