Using polyester version of CTP

A few years ago, the polyester version could only be as simple as a copying machine, and only short-run printing. After printing thousands of copies, the surface of the printing plate will be worn out and the printed product will be very dusty. At that time, the polyester version was not suitable for four-color printing at all, because the base of the plastic would be stretched during the printing process, making overprinting inaccurate.
To solve the problem of poor wear resistance and overprinting, only continuous improvement is needed. Over the years, the polyester version has been continuously improved. At present, most polyester prints have a print resistance of 10,000 to 20,000 impressions. If you pay attention to the version, the tensile deformation will be small. At the same time, the demand for short-run printing has also greatly increased.
Although the metal plate market is very active at present, both the plate manufacturers and the imagesetter manufacturers are very much interested in the polyester plate market.
In the premium polyester version, the main suppliers are two companies, Agfa and Mitsubishi Paper. The Presstek company is paying more attention to the mechanism version of the polyester version.
In the low-grade polyester version, the main suppliers are not very familiar to everyone, mainly TechNova, Kimoto, and Xante.
In the field of high-end platesetters, more and more companies have joined. For example: Heidelberger introduced the Primesetter imagesetter, Purup-Eskofot introduced the DPX 5080, Exxtra and RIPit together launched the Exxtrasetter 400, and AB Dick also has an imagesetter for its own presses.
In terms of low-end platesetters, Kimoto launched the Kimosetter 340, which has caused great interest.
ECRM, a manufacturer of traditional film photosetters, also strongly promoted the use of polyester plates. At Drupa, the company persuaded some small and fast printing companies to purchase the company's Mako Imagesetter as a preparation for the Metal CTP. Mako's photo-composing function can greatly reduce pre-press preparation and give printers a practical opportunity to increase the digital process flow and accumulate experience for future use of the metal version of the CTP. Some other suppliers also share the same attitude.

Polyester plate supplier

High-grade polyester version Since 3M company withdrew from this market, the main competitors are Agfa and Mitsubishi Paper. The Presstek company is committed to the mechanism version of the polyester version.
Agfa launched the Setprint Plus plate. Agfa's Setprint printing plate has been sold on the market for a few years and has occupied a large market share. The company claims to have a 50% market share. It uses a sensitive silver halide coating that can be used on film imagesetters, infrared and red laser diodes, and green laser (dual-frequency YAG) and blue laser (argon) lasers.
The new version is Setprint Plus, which is said to have greatly improved the latitude of printing, the latitude of exposure, and also improved the latitude of temperature and speed, so that the contrast of printed matter is better.
The print strength of the Setprint Plus plate is 15,000 to 20,000 impressions. The target is 8 pages of monochrome printing and 4 pages of multi-color printing. The printing cable is 175 lpi. Its platemaking efficiency is the same as traditional film production, but it requires specialized chemical flushing.
The price of Setprint Plus plates is about 60% to 70% of the metal CTP plate.
Mitsubishi Paper's Silver Digiplate Plate. The other 50% of the market for polyester versions is owned by Mitsubishi Paper, which uses technologies and product lines similar to those of Agfa.
In addition, Mitsubishi Paper also offers paper-based products with the same photosensitive and rinsing chemicals as other products, but the substrate is coated paper instead of polyester. The resistance to printing is relatively low, only a few thousand, but the price is 40% lower than polyester.
Mitsubishi Paper's new product at the Drupa trade fair is the new thick Silver Digiplate, which can be used on the Primesetter imagesetter in Heidelberg.
Presstek's PearlDry Plus Plate. This plate uses an ablation coating and therefore requires a strong infrared laser light source. The technology can theoretically be applied to any press, but the target of Presstek is mainly its DI model in the machine press, like the PAX press developed with Xerox and Adast. The plate uses a very high strength polyester, which completely solves the color printing problem of registration.

Low-grade polyester version of TechNova: polyester is hydrophilic, while toner is lipid. So by using a laser printer to print on polyester, you can make an offset printing plate. Of course, not all polyesters can be used, and toner adhesion and heat resistance are the key issues. TechNova's NovaDom material is designed for use with laser printers. The material cost is 10 to 12 US dollars per square meter. Like some aluminum plates, this material is not attractive, but the cost of the machine is very low. Just 1 HP or other similar printer, no post-processing equipment required. The process is also very simple, print it out and go to the press.
NovaDom is designed for the short-run market, monochrome or two-tone printing. At Drupa, TechNova distributed four-color samples to the audience. Although the registration is not yet perfect, printing a special theme such as new impressionistic abstract paintings is still plausible. This also reflects an important reality. Not all products need perfect registration. Sometimes colors are good enough.
Kimoto: This is a Japanese company that not only supplies laser printers, but also Kimoplate S plates for laser printers and Kimopard e2 plates for thermal printers.
The Kimoplate e2 plate has an endurance force of up to 10,000 impressions and can be used on the Liangming presses. The print proofs are amazing: 4 to 10 pounds of various fonts are printed perfectly, and the 0.14 to 2.8 pound curve is uninterrupted. There are slight marks on the gradient, but 5% to 95% of the dots are intact, and the middle of the 110-line image is intact.
The e2 plate is more economical than the laser printer plate. One e2 plate is 80 cents, using the traditional way of dampening.
Xante cooperates with Agfa. Although Agfa's initial polyester version was SetPrint, Agfa also offers a polyester version for laser printers. The most widely known is Laserlink, Xante, which sells under the name Myriad, supporting its PlateMaker 3 printer, and has been known for several years.