HP announced that Christinger Partner AG, Switzerland, is the first
print service provider worldwide to achieve the PSO/ISO 12647-2
certification on an HP Scitex TJ8350 Industrial Press. The Association
for the Promotion of Research in the Graphic Arts Industry (Ugra)
administered the PSO/ISO certification. Certification lasts for two
years and its achievement indicates that results on the certified device
are comparable to offset lithography and repeatable.
The process
is a comprehensive and time-consuming one and we felt that if we were
to make it successful we should engage our key suppliers, said
Karlheinz Kaiser, CEO, Christinger Partner AG. With HP, and colour
management software supplier GMG, we began working through the process.
GMG supported the certification process at Christinger Partner with its colour management consulting services.
Our
main target is to increase and leverage the transfer of technical
know-how about our products and technology towards the customer, said
Steffen Raeuchle, product manager at GMG. Christinger Partner benefits
from intensive training on our key colour management solution, GMG
ColorServer/SmartProfiler, to really get the most from its HP Scitex
TJ8350.
The importance of the PSO/ISO certification to Christinger is significant as it affects many aspects of the business.
It
is not unusual for us to have parallel production of jobs, said
Kaiser. Being Switzerland, these are often divided along language
lines: we do the longer runs on litho presses and the shorter ones
digitally. Since these are large graphics, for example with City Lights
displays and backlights, they should look the same. Also, printed
products should look the same from the large public displays to store
graphics, posters, point-of-sale materials etc. This way, they are
consistent.
There can be time-saving benefits for customers as
well as for Christinger. Such is the level of confidence in
Christinger’s ability to guarantee and achieve a 100% faithful colour
reproduction from supplied artwork, that the company now prints 90% of
files without an approved final proof from the customer. These
previously had to be delivered via courier or express service. Once
Christinger receives the artwork, an in-house produced PSO/ISO reference
proof is used to check the final colour results on press.
Following
the award of the certification, Christinger ran workshops for the whole
company with GMG, telling them about the PSO certification and what it
meant.
Erwin Widmer, general manager, Ugra, said, The Ugra PSO
certification helps to transport the customer’s requirements through the
whole company in a crystal clear – and automated – fashion and leads to
better quality and higher satisfaction.
