Sachsendruck
:Apogee at Sachsendruck
When Johann Fülle founded the small printing shop in Plauen in 1643, no one could have predicted what it would like today. Today, Sachsendruck Plauen GmbH is a modern and innovative European full service provider, which owes its strong market position to continuous investments and further training.
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Sachsendruck
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In the heart of the Vogtland region, the company's 200 employees, including 20 trainees, generate an annual turnover of approx. €30m.
The company specializes in the end-to-end production of customer magazines, journals, books and periodicals for customers from industry, commerce and trade, alongside conventional commercial products for businesses. The Plauen-based company each year produces approx. 3m periodicals, 7m children's cardboard books and 6m thin books. In addition, it offers other print products, such as the combined processing of smaller jobs, which are produced cost-effectively on a single sheet.
Sachsendruck has a printing capacity of 6 printers in formats 3b and 6 with a total of 31 printing units, and is capable of processing all paper grades. The print production covers also all types of UV coating, from simple UV protective coating to exclusive effect coating. In addition, Sachsendruck provides the whole finishing line, from guillotines, folding machines, saddle stitchers, adhesive binders, thread stitchers through to book production lines.
Ilona Lazar (Agfa), Silvana Schwarzer, Uwe Börner (both Sachsendruck) and Alexander Puggioni (Agfa) at the Agfa CTP Avalon N24-50.
For the reliable, consistent supply of printing plates to production, Sachsendruck has opted for Agfa solutions: two :Avalon N24-50S platesetters are used for imaging the versatile P970 plates which are known for their robustness under harsh printing conditions.
Under these conditions, the motto of the prepress department is perfectly understandable: "Why change a winning concept?". Sachsendruck introduced the :Apogee Workflow already in 2002. The high degree of automation of :Apogee PrePress results not only in cost-effective production but also in significantly increased production reliability. The smooth process flows allow high flexibility in the management of multilayered jobs.
With the high availability of :Apogee, production is guaranteed right up to the pressroom. Due to the constantly changing market conditions, it is vital for Sachsendruck to be able to rely on Agfa for the continuous further development of the workflow.
Order capacity could be flexibly increased thanks to Impose
This has been confirmed since version 7 of the Agfa Workflow with the fully integrated :Apogee Impose imposition module was introduced more than one year ago. After a short familiarization period, :Apogee Impose could almost exclusively be used for form preparation. Since Sachsendruck has seen its order intake virtually double in the past year, production is fully ensured by the high level of automation of :Apogee Impose. "The order capacity could be flexibly increased thanks to :Apogee Impose", says Uwe Börner, Preprint Manager.
The important and flexible automated branding function not only saves time and therefore also costs, it also provides very high reliability in case of short-notice order changes, which occur almost every hour. Changed job parameters such as sheet format, use of paper, colours, sheet turning options, etc. are carried out simply, directly and reliably in :Apogee Impose without having to exit from the customary :Apogee PrePress program environment.
Automated production of mixed forms
When it expanded its business lines, Sachsendruck was able not only to boost its sales but also to smoothly implement the activities from a technical and organizational point of view. The unique function in :Apogee Impose for mixed forms is one of the tools that led to the increase in production. Very intelligent automation features for combining jobs in :Apogee Impose allow up to 150 jobs to be processed daily.
A3+ print-outs instead of proofs
Another major efficiency increase was achieved by the :Apogee option "Split for Proof". This features splits imposition forms into facing pairs of pages, for subsequent duplex printing on a cost-effective printer. At Sachsendruck, 60 to 70% of all proofs are no longer printed on their large plotter, but on an A3+ laser printing system that has lower purchase and maintenance costs. Less time is spent on time-consuming steps like gluing, folding and cutting. Customers also benefit from these pre-produced print-outs in reading order, because the contents continue to be shown in binding form and also much better approach the finally printed product than the previous large format print-outs.
The reliability of a workflow is obviously to a great extent determined by the support of the manufacturer. Sachsendruck is extremely satisfied with the advice, training and technical support provided by Agfa Graphics. Especially the remote support facilities with the associated very short response times provide many benefits. For example, questions do not need to be explained in detail, but are immediately visualized for the support team. This partnership and professional collaboration enables Sachsendruck to successfully respond to constantly changing market demands in the prepress area, thereby reliably implementing a crucial element in the production chain.
