Incredible quick turnaround with LED UV ink.

One of our clients approached us with a request to help produce a short run of brochures in a day. The production timescale of the job was governed by the knowledge that there would be final copy inclusions that would not be available until the day before the brochure needed to go to print.

The request was to produce a small quantity of 24pp A5 brochures; this did however present certain challenges!

The first challenge was that the job had to be produced using traditional lithographic printing as a fluorescent ink was required to be printed throughout. This immediately ruled out digital print as an option. Secondly, and to greater challenge the timescale, it all had to be printed on uncoated paper!! Historically, and for the vast majority of printers, this request would have been unthinkable due to the time it takes for conventional ink to dry on uncoated paper stocks. However, with the instant drying properties of LED UV inks the challenges could be overcome at Opal.

With the job planned into the production schedule the electronic files arrived the afternoon prior to production. These were quickly processed through the repro department and PDF proofs were returned to our client for approval. On examination there were a few authors’ corrections to be made resulting in a small number of new pages needing to be re-supplied. On receiving these, further proofs were issued and by 10am the following day the files were approved to print.

The job now had to be printed, finished and collected by the courier at 5pm!!

The plates were made; four sets were required to print the brochure, each section printing in four colour process plus the special fluorescent pink. The quality checks and approval procedures were completed for each set of plates as they were made ready on the press. The printed sheets were then processed through the finishing department which involved creasing, folding, collating, wire stitching and trimming.

Much to our satisfaction, at 5pm the completed brochures were securely packaged and collected by the courier.

Previously this would have been impossible for Opal but we are very pleased to say it is now achievable through careful planning and the amazing advantages of LED UV printing.