It was interesting to see how the machines looked in real life and i was very fond of the smell of inks.
Most of the runs that they do are between 10,000 and 30,000 so the plates for printing were etched onto polystyrene rather that aluminum plates which are used for high quantity runs.
Another thing that i found interesting was the cutting and folding machine that they had. This folded and cut the prints after they had been printed. It looked very similar to a letter press and after talking to ken about it he told me that a lot of old letter presses can be converted into folding and cutting machines, foil stamping machines and embossing machines.
I liked the idea of this as the big old letter presses look so much more exciting than the new style printing machines. I suppose it's also good to put something back to use rather than it just sitting there gathering dust. The one ken has was converted by company in Bradford.
The machines were down stairs in the 'workshop' area. Up stairs they had a proofing team who set up the artwork and do little bits of design and amendments to artwork if needed. There was also a in house accounts bit, so the whole business was in one building.
Ken also told me about other types of printing which was good to find out, he said that flexography was mostly used for printed labels and that the quality of print was not as good as litho. He also spoke a little about gravure printing which is mostly used for doing high quantity fast runs, so things like newspaper supplements and magazines are often printed this way.
Here's some pictures i took of the machines, i intend to use the information gathered and pictures for my 16 page print production booklet.
Full colour litho machines
This is the machine that makes the styrofoam plates.
Letterpress converted into a folding and cutting machine. ( can do di-cutting with this too.)
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