Application of metal plates

The small ctp system is the future choice for many Printing companies. The United States "Printing World" magazine conducted a survey of metal plate printers currently on the market.

Two of the world's leading B3 sheet metal platesetters were born near Gloucestershire in the UK and there is a certain relationship between the two products. One product is the small format version 2218 of the HighWater Platinum 2230 Digital Printing Facility; the other is the Cirrus 2 platesetter from Global Graphics, a digital Repromaster studio camera.

HighWater has existed for some time and sold nearly 100 units. The recent performance in the United States will further refresh this figure. The Cirrus 2 is a new product, a green laser product that had just been developed before the Ipex exhibition and recently introduced a violet laser product. All HighWater's sales products are violet laser diode units.

Surprisingly, none of the suppliers who invest in the market have plans to produce platesetters for aluminum plates. There are several four-page platesetters that can not only expose eight-up plates, but also cell components for electrostatics, laser printer imaging, and polyester plates.

Major suppliers such as Agfa, Fuji and Creo seem to have no interest in this low-end market. This is strange because small printing companies consume more printing plates than large commercial printing companies.

Double-page printer

Due to the small print volume, small-scale printing companies are more or less turning to the trend of four-color printing and short printing cycles. Apex Digital Solutions and Ry-Offset Graphics have a deep understanding of this, so they used a two-page printer with the platesetter to combine the digital imaging plate with the press and compete with the digital press. .

The HighWater device was first introduced in September 1999 and is designed to meet the 2230 small format press. It has a large format printer platform design, positioning pins and a choice of resolutions from 1,270 to 2,540 dpi. At higher resolutions, plates can be imaged in less than four minutes. At the same time, an automatic loading and unloading part was also exhibited at the Ipex exhibition.

Manual operation

In contrast, Global Graphics added manual operation to Cirrus, which is much cheaper than the automatic model, but its functionality is exactly the same. This measure is to ensure the sales volume. The price of this product will be 62,000 US dollars.

The Cirrus tool contains a Harlequin Rip and its matching processor, which costs about $50,000. This price can increase the cost-effectiveness of end-users, and more importantly, dealers can invest in and sell consumables.

Sales manager Clive Green said: "At present, this market is not very mature, and everyone still does not approve of the polyester version, so the market for metal plates is still very large." But this market segment and ctp for large web offset companies with large differences.

In many respects, the customer's request is no different from the motivation for promoting Creo's development of the first platesetter. In other words, the smaller the company, the higher the value of space utilization. If you want to develop better, you should ensure that the plate-making area is separated from the printing area. Otherwise, flying chips on the ground and air in the printing area will seriously affect the quality of the printing plate.

Therefore, any device that operates in this environment must be extremely rugged. Similarly, people who operate high-precision workflows and imaging techniques do not require special training.

Some equipment manufacturers have a deep understanding of this. Plates are manually mounted on the pins of the rollers. Press the control button to level the plate, then close the lid and begin imaging.

It is impossible for the operator to reach the imaging head to ensure that it is free of airborne dust. After the exposure is completed, the plate is immediately removed from the pin and transported to the developer. Since there are a variety of devices operating under visible light, there is no need to open a darkroom and save a lot of space.

The Cirrus CTP product's production capacity is 26 plates per hour, which is very attractive. With just one such plate maker, the needs of multiple presses can be met without any problems. Ctp technology has great advantages. The printing plate is very practical, and the inking process is also safer and faster, which greatly improves the production efficiency.

Today's competition is no longer between printing companies that use traditional printing presses, but rather between print companies that use digital printing technology and companies that use traditional ink and paper technologies.

Global Graphics's plate-making machine function is also relatively complete. It has the same clever design as other large-format devices, and it has a loader that can fill the printing plate from the side into removable cartridges, which greatly saves space and provides new ideas for upgrading the next version of the platemaking equipment.


Source: China Heng Network