The choice of plate has a direct impact on any ctp process. Therefore, when choosing a thermal, violet or visible light plate, choose carefully.
When users select a computer-to-plate system, they rarely mention the plates and their development process. This is surprising. According to Mr. Gary Wall, general manager of IGP Co., Ltd., a supplier of ctp plate developing equipment, “This is a problem that we have to consider. People usually only consider whether the appearance of the tool is good-looking and ignore the technology itself.â€
In the past, different Ctp plates and their development process always had a lot of obvious differences. With the continuous advancement of plate-making machine technology, this situation has also been correspondingly alleviated, and the common features on the plate have become more and more.
In fact, every company that installs a ctp system (either thermal or visible light) claims that the quality of overprinting has improved greatly since the use of cleaner plates. In addition, since the filmmaking process does not use film, it solves the bottleneck problem of slow plate making speed, greatly improves production efficiency, and greatly reduces waste.
So far, the main differences between the various ctp systems still revolve around the type of plate used and its development process. It is true that all metal plates, whether thermal plates or visible plates, use the same aluminum plate as a substrate, but the methods of graining and anodizing on the surface of the aluminum plate vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
However, the main difference between various printing plates is the type of laser energy, heat source, or light source used to activate the reaction when the thin emulsion coating on the aluminum plate is exposed. Since the laser can only emit energy at a fixed wavelength, the emulsion layer properties of the imaging plate need to be adjusted to match the wavelength of the specific energy emitted by the laser. Therefore, a specific plate coating material formula is required for each type of laser to ensure that the plate reaches a reaction peak in the corresponding wavelength region of the laser.
Ablation layer For so-called "visible" printing plates, the coating is made of a photopolymer or silver salt material with photosensitivity, while the thermal plate coating is made of a temperature-sensitive photopolymer or ablation layer. composition. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of image quality, exposure speed, exposure, and development processes.
First consider the imaging quality. The thermal plate is sensitive to infrared lasers between 800 and 850 nm. The dual nature of the coating means that images can only be recorded when the energy amplitude and phase changes have reached a certain level. That is, the plate area that does not reach the target temperature will not react and will not be exposed. As a result, clean, sharp-edged dots can be created that can be used to make fine screen lines. In addition, the printing plate can be baked, suitable for long-run printing or UV ink printing production.
However, the heat-sensitive coating requires a higher amount of energy to react than a silver salt or slightly less sensitive photopolymer material.
The sensitivity of the thermal plate is similar to that of a traditional plate, allowing rapid imaging of relatively low energy lasers. In general, they can obtain higher dot resolution, and photopolymer emulsions require more than 100 times more laser energy.
According to Fujifilm, the company's recently introduced violet laser polymer plate can achieve similar quality to that of the thermal plate during the copying process. The printing plate is printed on the machine after baking. The resistance to India can be increased from 200,000 printed to 1 million printed. This has caught the attention of people.
On the other hand, the printing plate needs 30mW laser, and unlike the thermal plate, all visible light plates need to be processed in a safe light environment (because they are sensitive to sunlight), the violet laser plate can be bright yellow safe Lamp processing. All visible light plates may also cause underexposure or exposure transitions due to differences in energy intensity and exposure time. Concentrations of chemical agents are too large or too small, and too long or too short development times can cause problems.
In fact, the development process of the thermal plate is the simplest. It tends to use less chemicals and greatly reduces waste. This is very important because the cost of chemicals will increase the cost of printing plates by 10% or more.
The following relates to maintenance and maintenance issues. For example, according to estimates by Kodak Polychrome Graphics, a medium-sized company with two or four printing presses spends an average of six man-hours per week cleaning the processor for the processing of visible light plates.
Since KPG does not produce this type of plate, they have a say in this area. Obviously, visible light printing plates are also constantly advancing. For example, the new Fujifilm Brillia LP-N3 plate not only has a new sensitive layer, but also adopts new developing technologies. It is said that this technology reduces the large-scale use of chemicals by printers, prolongs the life of the developer, and at the same time reduces the developer residue (processing this residue becomes a major problem in the development of photopolymer plates).
Additional Processes On the other hand, thermal plates require some additional processing such as pre-heating the plates to achieve exposure sensitivity, requiring pre-cleaning before development and baking behind the plates to enhance image area pairs. The corrosiveness of chemicals improves the printing rate. These operations not only require space, but also consume energy and increase operating costs.
However, these aspects also have a certain improvement, especially in terms of the sturdiness of the printing plate, without the baking version, the imprinting rate of the printing plate keeps increasing.
For example, Fujifilm's Brillia LH-PIE positive plate is used in medium-volume jobs that require neither preheating nor backbake. The plate has very good resistance to corrosion and can use uv inks without baking. And this type of plate can also be processed using standard plate developing equipment.
In fact, the compatibility of the developing process is a point worth paying attention to, because each type of printing plate requires a different chemical, even if the same type of printing plate, also need to use a separate developing device.
In other words, using the same developing device to process different types of printing plates is not possible. In addition, in some cases, it is not feasible to use the same developing device to process the same type of printing plate from different manufacturers.
This type of problem occurs more in visible light plates than thermal plates. For example, IGP's ThermaLine processor can handle various thermal plates on the market including special sizes.
During the development phase of ctp, the most important point may be how to combine the thermal and traditional plate development process. Paul Burton, general manager of Replica, based in Redhill, made the point. The company recently purchased a Screen 8000II platesetter to develop the Electra Excel plate produced by KPG.
He said: "In fact, we can develop ctp and conventional printing plates at the same time on existing developing machines, which saves unnecessary costs, and it takes extra space to put another development machine."
In terms of environmental considerations, none of the technologies are perfect, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages, just as it would be to install a silver recycling device in the case of processing silver salts.
The possibility of recycling
Agfa has long found that one of the main reasons why the printing of Nordic countries reverted to the use of silver salt was that they wanted to work towards the goal of “zero development waste being discharged into the gutterâ€. In other words, they want the plate to have the possibility of recycling, and point out a key green rule - making products from recyclable materials.
We have to wait and see if this idea will become a trend in other market sectors or in other countries. There are laws and regulations regarding the requirements for recycling, recycling, and disposal. Interestingly, Mr. Wall of IGP introduced: “Our thermal plate developing machines have been selling very well until September 2001, but since then, the sales of visible plate printing machines have also increased. higher."
But he attributed this reduction to the fact that Heidelberg entered the visible light plate market. It is also possible that platesetters for visible light plates, especially the latest violet platesetter, are more suitable for small-scale operations that have just begun to install ctp systems.
In general, the number of visible light and thermal plate systems installed in Europe has always been parallel, but whether the actual plate consumption is the same as this is controversial, especially when considering that most newspaper printing companies use visible light. When printing plates, the data is more difficult to count. Most companies in the UK use visible light photopolymer plates.
This development should have caused the price of these printing plates to drop, but it is hard to say how the progress has been made, because so far, printing plates have mainly been sold as part of the ctp system. The price of hardware often depends on the size of the plates in the contract and length.
Potential impact Another factor that has a potential impact on plate prices is manufacturing processing costs. Although the price of silver salt emulsions is more or less expensive than photopolymer, the overall cost of raw materials remains relatively even. As Fujifilm claims, their photopolymer-based Brillia series ctp plates are developed as easily as conventional plates.
Steve Doyle, Head of Applied Technology at KPG, said, "The application of thermal layers is the same as traditional printing layers, which gives manufacturers like us the flexibility to supply."
But he also added that “Ctp needs a higher standard. We have produced a thermal version for seven years now. We have acquired a lot of experience technology and introduced many simple steps for customers to ensure consistent high quality and minimum waste."
Strategic Decision
Mr. Steve Doyle believes: “Improvement of ergonomics can guarantee price reduction. We have made strategic decisions and plan to produce thermal plates in the European, U.S. and Japanese markets to ensure that suppliers are closer to customers. The actual impact of product processing on prices is Less than print, competitiveness and market pressure."
This will allow us to make a final choice for the future potential of different technologies. Advocates of the thermal technology point out that their technology is the only technology that may provide hands-free operation.
Take into account that a chemical processor is a very expensive device that requires maintenance and waste disposal, which is a very important factor.
This free-flush printing plate is currently available, and the main supplier is Presstek. There are already a series of thermal-free plates that are completely free of development and suitable for a variety of jobs.
By that time, we may already have a similar plate-making machine that can image traditional plates. Traditional plates are much cheaper than ctp plates. Who knows the future?
If you plan to turn to ctp technology, keep in mind that not everyone knows the technology very well. Currently the best advice is to look at existing materials and equipment and calculate all the costs that the owner needs, according to the printing plate. And the cost of processing to calculate the difference between the platesetter, because this is the most important factor in the long run.
When users select a computer-to-plate system, they rarely mention the plates and their development process. This is surprising. According to Mr. Gary Wall, general manager of IGP Co., Ltd., a supplier of ctp plate developing equipment, “This is a problem that we have to consider. People usually only consider whether the appearance of the tool is good-looking and ignore the technology itself.â€
In the past, different Ctp plates and their development process always had a lot of obvious differences. With the continuous advancement of plate-making machine technology, this situation has also been correspondingly alleviated, and the common features on the plate have become more and more.
In fact, every company that installs a ctp system (either thermal or visible light) claims that the quality of overprinting has improved greatly since the use of cleaner plates. In addition, since the filmmaking process does not use film, it solves the bottleneck problem of slow plate making speed, greatly improves production efficiency, and greatly reduces waste.
So far, the main differences between the various ctp systems still revolve around the type of plate used and its development process. It is true that all metal plates, whether thermal plates or visible plates, use the same aluminum plate as a substrate, but the methods of graining and anodizing on the surface of the aluminum plate vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
However, the main difference between various printing plates is the type of laser energy, heat source, or light source used to activate the reaction when the thin emulsion coating on the aluminum plate is exposed. Since the laser can only emit energy at a fixed wavelength, the emulsion layer properties of the imaging plate need to be adjusted to match the wavelength of the specific energy emitted by the laser. Therefore, a specific plate coating material formula is required for each type of laser to ensure that the plate reaches a reaction peak in the corresponding wavelength region of the laser.
Ablation layer For so-called "visible" printing plates, the coating is made of a photopolymer or silver salt material with photosensitivity, while the thermal plate coating is made of a temperature-sensitive photopolymer or ablation layer. composition. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of image quality, exposure speed, exposure, and development processes.
First consider the imaging quality. The thermal plate is sensitive to infrared lasers between 800 and 850 nm. The dual nature of the coating means that images can only be recorded when the energy amplitude and phase changes have reached a certain level. That is, the plate area that does not reach the target temperature will not react and will not be exposed. As a result, clean, sharp-edged dots can be created that can be used to make fine screen lines. In addition, the printing plate can be baked, suitable for long-run printing or UV ink printing production.
However, the heat-sensitive coating requires a higher amount of energy to react than a silver salt or slightly less sensitive photopolymer material.
The sensitivity of the thermal plate is similar to that of a traditional plate, allowing rapid imaging of relatively low energy lasers. In general, they can obtain higher dot resolution, and photopolymer emulsions require more than 100 times more laser energy.
According to Fujifilm, the company's recently introduced violet laser polymer plate can achieve similar quality to that of the thermal plate during the copying process. The printing plate is printed on the machine after baking. The resistance to India can be increased from 200,000 printed to 1 million printed. This has caught the attention of people.
On the other hand, the printing plate needs 30mW laser, and unlike the thermal plate, all visible light plates need to be processed in a safe light environment (because they are sensitive to sunlight), the violet laser plate can be bright yellow safe Lamp processing. All visible light plates may also cause underexposure or exposure transitions due to differences in energy intensity and exposure time. Concentrations of chemical agents are too large or too small, and too long or too short development times can cause problems.
In fact, the development process of the thermal plate is the simplest. It tends to use less chemicals and greatly reduces waste. This is very important because the cost of chemicals will increase the cost of printing plates by 10% or more.
The following relates to maintenance and maintenance issues. For example, according to estimates by Kodak Polychrome Graphics, a medium-sized company with two or four printing presses spends an average of six man-hours per week cleaning the processor for the processing of visible light plates.
Since KPG does not produce this type of plate, they have a say in this area. Obviously, visible light printing plates are also constantly advancing. For example, the new Fujifilm Brillia LP-N3 plate not only has a new sensitive layer, but also adopts new developing technologies. It is said that this technology reduces the large-scale use of chemicals by printers, prolongs the life of the developer, and at the same time reduces the developer residue (processing this residue becomes a major problem in the development of photopolymer plates).
Additional Processes On the other hand, thermal plates require some additional processing such as pre-heating the plates to achieve exposure sensitivity, requiring pre-cleaning before development and baking behind the plates to enhance image area pairs. The corrosiveness of chemicals improves the printing rate. These operations not only require space, but also consume energy and increase operating costs.
However, these aspects also have a certain improvement, especially in terms of the sturdiness of the printing plate, without the baking version, the imprinting rate of the printing plate keeps increasing.
For example, Fujifilm's Brillia LH-PIE positive plate is used in medium-volume jobs that require neither preheating nor backbake. The plate has very good resistance to corrosion and can use uv inks without baking. And this type of plate can also be processed using standard plate developing equipment.
In fact, the compatibility of the developing process is a point worth paying attention to, because each type of printing plate requires a different chemical, even if the same type of printing plate, also need to use a separate developing device.
In other words, using the same developing device to process different types of printing plates is not possible. In addition, in some cases, it is not feasible to use the same developing device to process the same type of printing plate from different manufacturers.
This type of problem occurs more in visible light plates than thermal plates. For example, IGP's ThermaLine processor can handle various thermal plates on the market including special sizes.
During the development phase of ctp, the most important point may be how to combine the thermal and traditional plate development process. Paul Burton, general manager of Replica, based in Redhill, made the point. The company recently purchased a Screen 8000II platesetter to develop the Electra Excel plate produced by KPG.
He said: "In fact, we can develop ctp and conventional printing plates at the same time on existing developing machines, which saves unnecessary costs, and it takes extra space to put another development machine."
In terms of environmental considerations, none of the technologies are perfect, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages, just as it would be to install a silver recycling device in the case of processing silver salts.
The possibility of recycling
Agfa has long found that one of the main reasons why the printing of Nordic countries reverted to the use of silver salt was that they wanted to work towards the goal of “zero development waste being discharged into the gutterâ€. In other words, they want the plate to have the possibility of recycling, and point out a key green rule - making products from recyclable materials.
We have to wait and see if this idea will become a trend in other market sectors or in other countries. There are laws and regulations regarding the requirements for recycling, recycling, and disposal. Interestingly, Mr. Wall of IGP introduced: “Our thermal plate developing machines have been selling very well until September 2001, but since then, the sales of visible plate printing machines have also increased. higher."
But he attributed this reduction to the fact that Heidelberg entered the visible light plate market. It is also possible that platesetters for visible light plates, especially the latest violet platesetter, are more suitable for small-scale operations that have just begun to install ctp systems.
In general, the number of visible light and thermal plate systems installed in Europe has always been parallel, but whether the actual plate consumption is the same as this is controversial, especially when considering that most newspaper printing companies use visible light. When printing plates, the data is more difficult to count. Most companies in the UK use visible light photopolymer plates.
This development should have caused the price of these printing plates to drop, but it is hard to say how the progress has been made, because so far, printing plates have mainly been sold as part of the ctp system. The price of hardware often depends on the size of the plates in the contract and length.
Potential impact Another factor that has a potential impact on plate prices is manufacturing processing costs. Although the price of silver salt emulsions is more or less expensive than photopolymer, the overall cost of raw materials remains relatively even. As Fujifilm claims, their photopolymer-based Brillia series ctp plates are developed as easily as conventional plates.
Steve Doyle, Head of Applied Technology at KPG, said, "The application of thermal layers is the same as traditional printing layers, which gives manufacturers like us the flexibility to supply."
But he also added that “Ctp needs a higher standard. We have produced a thermal version for seven years now. We have acquired a lot of experience technology and introduced many simple steps for customers to ensure consistent high quality and minimum waste."
Strategic Decision
Mr. Steve Doyle believes: “Improvement of ergonomics can guarantee price reduction. We have made strategic decisions and plan to produce thermal plates in the European, U.S. and Japanese markets to ensure that suppliers are closer to customers. The actual impact of product processing on prices is Less than print, competitiveness and market pressure."
This will allow us to make a final choice for the future potential of different technologies. Advocates of the thermal technology point out that their technology is the only technology that may provide hands-free operation.
Take into account that a chemical processor is a very expensive device that requires maintenance and waste disposal, which is a very important factor.
This free-flush printing plate is currently available, and the main supplier is Presstek. There are already a series of thermal-free plates that are completely free of development and suitable for a variety of jobs.
By that time, we may already have a similar plate-making machine that can image traditional plates. Traditional plates are much cheaper than ctp plates. Who knows the future?
If you plan to turn to ctp technology, keep in mind that not everyone knows the technology very well. Currently the best advice is to look at existing materials and equipment and calculate all the costs that the owner needs, according to the printing plate. And the cost of processing to calculate the difference between the platesetter, because this is the most important factor in the long run.
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