EBM

Eminence Business Media

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Ingersoll Paper Box benefits from in-house premedia production department running Esko software

Esko announces Ingersoll Paper Box Co., Ltd, a leading folding carton manufacturer based in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, has selected a full suite of its premedia technology to help reduce turnaround times and increase overall control to the prepress process.

Esko’s DeskPack, Plato, Automation Engine, FlexRip, FlexProof, and Color Engine, up and running since March, are helping Ingersoll Paper Box maintain its dedication to continuous improvement, a hallmark of its operating philosophy.

Always moving forward
Evolving toward bigger and better pursuits is part of the company’s DNA. Established in 1922 by CEO Sarah Skinner’s great grandfather, Robert Skinner, Ingersoll Paper Box began as Ingersoll Cone and Paper Box. The company’s initial foray into box manufacturing was to pack the ice cream cones the company made. Sales of the box took off, and the company soon ceased making ice cream cones.

Now, with a staff of 65, Ingersoll Paper Box offers the full range of services necessary to produce high quality folding cartons, with custom and design solutions created using computer-aided design (CAD), printing, die cutting, embossing, and folding/gluing. Today, pharmaceutical packaging represents about 75% of Ingersoll’s product mix. The remaining 25% serves consumer and food packaging.

“When we decided to upgrade our printing press (to a new 41-inch seven-color offset press), we were interested to see if we might change the entire process,” explains Skinner. “If we were going to make a change, we wondered, ‘How about all of it?’ We thought about bringing all premedia in-house and considered if it might be a good solution for us and our customers.”

Deciding that it made complete sense, Ingersoll invested in an Agfa platesetter to complement its new offset press. Along with the press came a new workflow system based upon Esko technology, because it was more user-friendly.

The move to bring premedia in-house was not so much a quality issue for Ingersoll Paper Box—but of economics and speed. Skinner explains, “We are a small run, quick turnaround shop. After reviewing our entire process, we felt moving more in items in house would speed up our process, and offer quicker turn-around time for our customers”.

It was a seamless transition to bring the prepress system in-house. “This software is not only the top level of technology, but it’s also easy to use,” Skinner comments. “A year ago we were afraid to bring the platemaking and pre-media workflow in-house, because we were concerned about how difficult it would be. However, the entire process is very user friendly. We were surprised how quick and easy it was to get up to speed with it.”

Total control of premedia
Turnaround times are reduced and overall control improved, as DeskPack, Plato, Automation Engine, Color Engine, FlexRip, and FlexProof/E, pack a lot of power into the workflow. DeskPack, which operators run in Adobe® Illustrator®, contains a preflight system that tracks down errors early on in the workflow and makes changes and edits, reducing time and costs.

FlexProof provides color-accurate contract proofs, working hand-in-hand with Color Engine color management and ink profiling technology, to create a consistent brand color database across all applications. Color Engine ensures that the final color is accurately represented on the proof, no matter the print process. “Having a color management system in-house, lets us check fingerprinting so that the color control is the same across all our devices and presses,” explains Skinner. “We know that the profile will be perfect for the press used for the particular job.”

Plato makes it easy to step and repeat jobs, bringing optimal plate layout, conserving time and materials. FlexRip, a flexible, device-independent RIP, drives the platesetter, implementing quality control tools to generate plate consistency and accuracy. Automation Engine, which automates all the workflow tasks in the background, delivers simple operation and control.

Bringing prepress house with Esko technology, Ingersoll Paper Box accomplished its goal of getting jobs on press faster. “If there is a correction, it can be done immediately, instead of having to wait for the outside source to fix it,” says Skinner. ‘If there is an artwork change on a repeat job, there is a seamless transition to the new plate being made - there’s no wait time.”

An added benefit, notes Skinner, is that the entire staff’s knowledge about prepress has improved. When prepress was sent outside, it was easy to not pay attention to how the process worked. “Now, everyone’s involved,” Skinner notes. “We see all the work as it runs though the workflow. We have a better understanding about what is supposed to happen. We can talk with our customers and troubleshoot the issue at hand, internally and immediately. There’s a lot more ‘hands on’ with all of our jobs, and with that, comes knowledge. Having the prepress in-house, we now have job ownership and expertise. From my perspective, it is exciting to talk about.”