Dewezet

The German daily newspaper Dewezet has for several years relied on Kodak products to power a busy offset operation. Most recently, they switched from their longstanding violet imaging system to Kodak thermal CTPs and process-free plates. The result: simplified production that brings efficiency and cost savings to help keep the business thriving in a challenging environment.

Produced by the Deister- und Weserzeitung publishing company, Dewezet is a daily newspaper in Germany's Lower Saxony state. Each day they print 60,000 daily papers, around 300,000 weekend freesheets, and various other reprints and publications, and their work has been repeatedly recognized for newspaper print quality by the International Color Quality Club of the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Like many in the industry, Dewezet has faced dwindling circulation and revenue challenges, leading them to consider ways to streamline and economize. Platemaking seemed an obvious step to reevaluate: the Dewezet plant goes through about 260,000 plates a year. They had long used violet imaging with wet chemistry processing and found their platesetters and Kodak violet plates reliable. But plate processing was a constant source of problems, requiring frequent manual fixes and eating up valuable staff time on processor cleaning, maintenance, and repairs. In late 2018 Dewezet reached out to Kodak to explore their options for eliminating plate processing entirely.

To Kodak, it was clear that switching to KODAK SONORA Process Free Plates would solve Dewezet's problems. But some staff were skeptical of the plates' “develop-on-press” method and concerned about meeting the printer's high quality standards. Plus, the switch would require investing in new thermal CTPs to replace their violet ones. So Kodak worked with them to implement trials, first testing SONORA Plates imaged elsewhere and run on Dewezet's presses, and then trying out a KODAK TRENDSETTER NEWS Platesetter on-site to image the plates themselves. The team was impressed by the speed at which the plates ran clean on press, with no contamination from the fountain solution, plus print quality even better than their previous violet plates. Convinced, they implemented a full Kodak solution: the TRENDSETTER CTP plus a KODAK GENERATION NEWS Platesetter, with a conveyor belt to automatically transport the imaged SONORA Plates to the web press center. And in mid-2020 Dewezet tested the next-generation SONORA XTRA Process Free Plates, ultimately migrating to them sitewide.

Process-free platemaking dramatically simplified Dewezet's production by cutting out a major task and source of problems, as well as eliminated the costs—and environmental footprint—of processing chemicals, water, cleaning supplies, and electricity. They estimate that they've reduced their disposal of chemicals by about 6,000 liters. They gained back floor space by eliminating processors and adding more compact CTPs, and they gained back staff time that could be put to better use. The upgrade to the robust SONORA XTRA Plates brought further benefits: the plate coating's greatly improved contrast has meant their plate punches no longer need expensive register cameras previously used to enhance the image contrast, and their press operators can now easily visually inspect and sort plates. These advantages plus reliable, high-quality performance have made Dewezet committed converts to Kodak's process-free technology.