Solopress, Southend, the fast-turnaround 24-hour printing business running Heidelberg Speedmaster perfecting litho presses has detailed its latest PressProfiler system that it has purchased from Prepress UK.

This latest PressProfiler CIP3 and PressProfiler Report package has been tailored specifically for the new B1-format Speedmaster XL3 XL106 10-colour perfecting press, added to the Southend site in Q4 2022. The new installation compliments the packages installed in previous years on the other Solopress Heidelberg presses, including three XL75 10-colour perfectors and Solopress’s five original SM74 presses, with the software providing savings on every single make-ready.

PressProfiler CIP3 is the powerful and easy to use CIP3 ink coverage and ink-zone calculation solution for offset litho printing presses, providing ink-key pre-setting for faster make-ready and helping to ensure fewer run-up sheets are required, and less time needed before correct colour is achieved on the press.

The PressProfiler Report software provides all of the statistical data needed to track job progress, and fully understand production costs, bottle-necks, and downtime on an offset printing press. Report provides real-time statistics, past job reports, and shift reports, showing time-on-press, the total amount of paper used, including waste and good copies, running speeds, press errors and events, all of which can be monitored from any computer, phone, or tablet on the network.

PressProfiler Report’s API and file export functions allow easy integration with management information and business intelligence systems, allowing a business to keep a firm handle on costs, and track job progress automatically.

Commenting on the Prepress UK products in use Ken McDonald, Production Manager at Solopress, said: “We are a high-volume print business – we are performing a good 80 or 90 make-readies per shift. PressProfiler gives us ink data for jobs, allowing us make a fast start, shaving off minutes per make-ready, and saving a whole bunch of waste sheets as well. Take all of those small bits of time and cost, then multiply them by the make-readies per shift and by four presses, and that equals three to five extra jobs per press per shift. That’s the real result of PressProfiler.”

Switching to PressProfiler Report, Jack Clifford, Head of Operations at Solopress, said: “Data is critical to the success of our business model, and the customisations that the Prepress UK team have made for us to the standard PressProfiler Report software, allowing data to be automatically fed into our bespoke management information system, have been a tremendous help to us.

“We could, of course, have obtained a similar software from the press manufacturer, but it would be much more difficult to have bespoke adjustments made to the off-the-shelf package, and we would have paid multiples of pounds more for the privilege! We know from experience that we can work closely with Prepress UK with regard to what we need, and they will deliver swiftly and without any fuss at all.”

Andrew Aldridge, Technical Manager at Prepress UK, commenting on his company’s products, said: “Bespoke software, designed specifically to address the problems experienced by a printer, is all in a day’s work for us. Large press suppliers are tremendous at the production of quality hardware, and very skilled at software creation too, but it’s software for “every printer”, but not for any printer specifically. Print covers a very wide range of customer needs, so we see it as our mission to work closely with print producers to address their specific needs.

“For example, at Solopress we’ve been able to quickly and affordably implement support for their custom XML job tickets in PressProfiler CIP3, allowing automatic setting on press of job schedules, paper information, and run lengths, along with the inking data. With PressProfiler Report a custom API is produced for Solopress’s in-house team of software experts to pull statistical information straight into their own systems, where they consolidate data from across the business in one place.”

PressProfiler communicates directly to a wide range of press consoles in their native format, including products from Heidelberg, Koenig & Bauer, manroland sheet-fed, RMGT / Ryobi, Komori, and many others. Integrating with any workflow or RIP, it works with incoming PDF, PS, TIFF or PPF (CIP3) files.

Nic Chapman, Sales Director of Prepress UK, said: “It’s a pleasure working with Solopress as they really understand the value of data and performance. Every optimisation we can bring to reduce make-ready or report back accurate data feeds directly into Solopress’s bottom line”.

He adds, “Solo’s latest XL3 XL106-10P machine is also the first XL3 that we’ve worked with, allowing us to prove our connection technology works just as well on the very latest spec Heidelberg machines as with earlier models.”