Yesterday after our speakers from Medium schooled us on web design, my classmates and I piled into our vehicles and drove to Allegra Printing. This was my first time to see a printing press in action.
Todd Oates
Once we arrived Todd Oates and the rest of the Allegra staff greeted us with open arms. Todd, who is the location manager, told us a little bit about Allegra’s history; for instance, it began as a family business in the 1970s and was Chattanooga, TN’s first digital printing press. After conversing for a bit, we began our tour.
In-house design department
Our visit kicked off in the in-house design department, which receives orders from clients and preps file formats ready for print. As a graphic design student, it was interesting to hear about some of the day-to-day interactions and situational humor that they experience, like heinous photo qualities or missing typefaces. Funny, I see similarities already. Heather, the graphic designer on staff, explained that sometimes she has to jump through design hurdles that she wouldn’t prefer to in order to please the client. I’m not sure how I felt about that but having previously done freelance work myself, I understand that the client’s needs must be met, whether they have impeccable taste or otherwise. As for missing file links…
Bonnie
The next room over housed two giant machines named Bonnie and Clyde. This room is called the Digital Print Center and it’s where…digital prints are made. Chandler, the print operator, was more than hospitable by showing us around and explaining her routine to us. As for Bonnie and Clyde, she says they totally have personalities: when Bonnie jams she screams, when Clyde jams he growls.
Roland
People, meet the Roland! Obviously, this is what larger print jobs, such as banners, are made from. Talking about some serious paper jams. In awe, I asked Todd how much this baby cost. The answer? Over 30 grand. Yeah, that’s more than the cost of my college tuition…and car…combined. Luckily, Allegra was nice enough to print some things off for us so we could see this machine work. Look at the photo gallery below and take note of its magnificence.
Roland
Gigantic ink cartridges
Printing in progress
Printing in progress
Classmates
Classmates
Trimmer
This is Andy and what he is doing is trimming the edges of some pamphlets that Chandler printed for us in the Digital Print Center. It looks pretty simple to operate. There’s a back wall to line the documents up against and then you just press a button to activate the blade. Seemingly unimpressive, this paper cutter looks like it could take a couple fingers off with eeease. Luckily for us, there’s a motion sensor that locks the blade when you cross its path. Watch those phalanges, Andy. Watch those phalanges.
Magnified CMYK
This image is the final result of a custom print job, which is more closely regulated. The dots are CYMK indicators that are viewed from a magnifier. This is how the printer can tell if an image is pristine or blurry. If the dots aren’t clear then it’s a misprint. There are two machines at Allegra that produce higher quality prints, which take more effort and measurement. Unlike Bonnie and Clyde, these machines are controlled by the printer instead of a circuit board. Dan is Allegra’s custom printer and he has complete control over the ink and speed of the document being printed on. images below shows details of one of these machines. The gallery below that shows envelops being printed.
Printing press
Rollers
Paper stack
Printing press
Cylinders
Last but not least, we were shown abbreviated binding and lamentation processes. I learned that when a booklet is saddle-stitched wire is used instead of staples. I also found out what a paddy wagon is (a cart used to adhere glue binding by hand).
Wire stitches
Lamenation process
Paddy wagon
Overall, I enjoyed visiting Allegra. It makes a grand difference to see a printing press in action rather than reading about it. You can only read about something you don’t understand so many times before it starts becoming nonsense. This was excellent. I can’t wait to go to the Times Free Press tomorrow to compare a small printing press to a large one. Thank you Allegra for being such great hosts and additional thanks for all the swag.
Process and Materials 2009
Tags: Allegra, Allegra Printing, digital printing press, Medium, paddy wagon, Printing press, Process and Materials, Roland, saddle stitch, ThisisMedium, Todd Oates
