Plates aren’t the only Fuji products that are used in the pressroom. We explain why Fuji might be the biggest name you’ve never heard of at the sharp end of print.

‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it' sums up the attitude of many printers towards their choice of pressroom chemistry and related products. If your fount, washes and other odds and ends all appear to be doing the job, why change them?

The answer, as in any other aspect of the print business, is that technology moves on, even in relatively unglamorous areas such as these. New products can offer better performance, reduced usage and improved environmental attributes, which means improved press productivity and reduced maintenance, lower running costs, and enhanced green credentials, an increasingly important factor for print buyers.

Although changing your fount, wash or gum might lack the dramatic initial impact of switching to CTP from film, or buying a brand new six-colour press, a simple change of fount can significantly improve the quality and efficiency of print production, so is well worth making - especially as it can often save you money too.

Fuji who?

It may come as a surprise, but Fuji is just as active in pressroom products as it is in plates or prepress hardware. Through its Fuji Hunt subsidiary, Fuji has been providing pressroom chemistry for around 30 years in mainland Europe and for a decade in the UK, selling through dealers under a variety of different brand names.

Some 60 per cent of UK newspapers are printed with Fuji pressroom products, and they're used on half of the MAN Lithoman IV presses installed in the country. When you've spent millions on the press, you don't want to have to keep stopping it to change blocked ink filters or for excessive blanket washes.

Whatever the label on the container, when you buy Fuji products, you're buying from one the world's leading developers of pressroom chemistry. With manufacturing and research facilities in six countries around the world from Australia to Japan, Belgium to the US, and a unique research facility at the MAN site in Augsburg, Germany, Fuji pressroom products come fully tested and supported by a wealth of pooled knowledge and experience.

Because we develop and test the products we sell, the feedback loop is complete - we listen to our customers' comments and concerns and develop products that address these. And, like everything else we make, they're manufactured to the highest standards of consistency.

Presenting PressMax

Ideal for use with commercial sheet-fed and mini-web (continuous stationery) presses, the PressMax range includes founts, washes and auxiliary products. As well as being designed to improve press life and performance, they are environmentally-friendly. The founts support reduced or alcohol-free printing and the washes are VOC-free, both improving the immediate working environment and minimising the broader environmental impact of print operations.

Even if going alcohol-free isn't an option, reducing the level from ten to five per cent means a cost saving, and a reduction in the safety and environmental implications of IPA usage. If you're putting in a new press, you'll want to use a FOGRA-approved product - PressMax products are, but what you're using now might not be.

But unless these issues already feature on your agenda, it's difficult to decide to interfere with established working practices unless you are certain there will be a benefit. That's why Fuji is offering product trials and pressroom audits. Even if there is no perceived problem in the pressroom, audits like these can demonstrate the benefits of a structured approach to cleaning, and identify fount dosages that are higher than necessary or solvents are not the most appropriate.

A pressroom audit will highlight opportunities for improvement and possibly detect and solve problems you weren't aware that you had. But if we don't think we can make any improvement, we'll say so. If you do try a PressMax product and switch to it, you know you're buying from a company with long experience in this sector and with the infrastructure to deliver not only the product itself but the support and service you'd expect from Fuji. It's not just support if things go wrong that we provide, but regular ongoing visits to monitor fount dosage and other performance factors to ensure that you're not using more than you need to.

A switch to Fuji's market-leading PressMax products, together with a regular maintenance regime, will increase pressroom efficiency, improve quality and clean up the working environment, all of which should directly contribute to increasing profits.