➤ Demonstrating its consistent understanding of what newspaper printers need to deliver – quality products while remaining competitive – QuadTech announced its latest addition to a long line of innovative products for newspaper and semi-commercial printers at DRUPA. The QuadTech® Newspaper Color Control System with AccuCam™ is an advanced image-based colour control system promising unequalled advantages to forward thinking printers. In particular, it enables printers to better meet the growing demand for colour advertising. “In order to compete with other media forms, newspapers must add value to their advertising offering by improving colour quality and consistency,” said Karl Fritchen, president of QuadTech. “We’re proud to enable printers to remain competitive in this changing landscape.” The AccuCam is a proprietary six-channel spectral sensor. Using QuadTech’s patented colour control technology, the AccuCam provides CIELAB-based color control. This next-generation image-based technology eliminates the need for colour bars or greybars. Instead, its closed loop colour control system obtains target aim point values from a high-resolution prepress file. The result is unequalled colour control, quality and reliability. QuadTech’s new system not only promises to increase productivity, but reduce labour, according to David Mitchell, office manager, QuadTech Asia-Pacific. “Our patented colour control technology automatically adjusts colour throughout the run for consistent top-quality colour from start to finish. The result is instant labour savings. Plus achieving accurate colour quickly has never been easier. Our fully automatic system frees up operators, produces less startup waste and generates higher productivity. “Naturally, one of our goals with this new technology was to improve profitability for printers,” he said. “We built in features that give printers more revenue-producing options.” According to David Mitchell, that includes the ability to reduce advertiser rebates thanks to the system’s exceptional colour control and reliability. The system’s increased colour capacity can help attract more work from current and potential newspaper and semi-commercial customers. Plus, space that was once taken up by visually unappealing colour bars or greybars can now be used for additional advertising. With other media forms eating away at their client base, newspaper printers are always looking for additional ways to increase their revenue streams. Taking semi-commercial work is an excellent way to keep printing presses busy during the day when newspapers aren’t printing. The QuadTech® Newspaper Color Control System with AccuCam™ is specifically geared for both newspaper and semi-commercial printing because the imager requires no colour bars or greybars. QuadTech’s control systems are already installed on more than 1,260 newspaper presses and are being used for thousands of commercial applications. These numbers will likely continue to rise as more newspaper printers realise the need to keep their presses producing revenue around the clock. The ever increasingly tight timeframes of today’s newspapers demand a system that is easy to use for all operators. QuadTech’s system is designed so that any operator – regardless of experience level – can be just as productive on it as the most experienced people. Intuitive and easy to use, the system requires very little training. For reduced labour needs and maximum ease of use, AccuCam™ is built to work with QuadTech’s ICON™ integrated platform, which enables operators to run multiple press controls from a single operator control station. The system’s intuitive user interface has minimal screens and buttons. Operators won’t waste time and effort navigating through extensive screens to accomplish the job. QuadTech designed the Newspaper Color Control System with AccuCam™ to meet the specific challenges of the newspaper print environment. The system was designed with an eye toward achieving low maintenance in that environment. The AccuCam™ includes QuadTech’s OptiGuard™, which keeps lens free of contaminants. Its long-lasting LED lighting minimises the downtime required for changes. David Mitchell noted that his experience in the field demonstrates that this new system is exactly what newspaper and semi-commercial printers want: “Today’s newspaper printers understand that to stay competitive, they have to maximise capital equipment investment,” he said. “That requires doing more with less. Higher quality. Less labour. More colour. Less capital outlay. Our Newspaper Color Control System with AccuCam™ can help newspaper printers accomplish all this and a lot more.” QuadTech www.quadtechworld.com/leader