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.”
