Is CTP really a tasteless thing?
The answer is simple: CTP manufacturers do not use practical actions to refute the arguments held by CTP opponents: digital proofing technology cannot be guaranteed; CTP plates are expensive; CTP's flexibility is poor, and it can only deal with all-digital printing; of course, CTP The last trump card played by opponents is that the price of the CTP system is astronomical for the printer! So they came to the conclusion that the use of CTP technology is worth more! However, this conclusion has not been widely recognized by the industry, nor has it prevented CTP manufacturers from continuing to develop CTP imaging systems and CTP plates. The reason is that they are optimistic about the CTP market which has broad development prospects. It is estimated that due to many unsatisfactory factors such as environmental pollution, cost, quality and film processing speed in the processing of photographic film, in the near future, more than 50,000 users using the imagesetter output film will turn to computer-to-plate technology. The traditional film-making and computer-to-computer direct plate making is just around the corner. Of course, CTP is a profitable market. At present, CTP products on the market are dazzling, each product has its own characteristics, and this status makes CTP manufacturers have a lot of room for price positioning. Market competition, such as fire scanners, imagesetters, RIP and other products due to the performance of the same business products, so manufacturers are not hesitate to fight a price war. As long as the time is ripe, CTP products such as scanners, imagesetters, RIP and other major price reductions are just a matter of time. It is appropriate to use the words of Time to Make Heroes in the CTP market. Some previously insignificant and obscure companies have become famous for developing CTP products. Have you heard of Creo and Gerber before? Now these two companies have secured a place in the CTP field! Cymbolic Sciences, ICG, and Highwater did not produce laser imagesetters before. Now there are many CTP products in the market. The big brothers in the field of laser imagesetters--Linnor Haier, Dawangping, Sai Angel and Agfa are also engaged in the development of computer-to-plate systems. Since Linohuel was taken over by Heidelberg, the state of Linnol was greatly changed. Heidelberg has reached an agreement with Creo to stop Gutenberg's production. Based on the future development strategy, Heidelberg is ready to open the commercial printing market with various models of CTP systems. It has been reported that Heidelberg does not plan to re-develop a new typesetting machine because Heidelberg believes that the future development trend is CTP. In the near future, Big Screen, Sai Angel and Aike will launch many new products to open the market. Big Screen's PlateRite 2080 is a 1080 (eight page CTP) upgrade. In the UK, its sales and sales have been stubbornly high. Taiping's TaigaSpace system has been widely used by British printing companies to lay a good foundation for the large-screen CTP. The major screen products are numbered by Imprinta's FlatRite 1050. There is already a British company that has ordered 1050 and put it into commercial operation three months later. It is a B2-format CTP product. It is available to CTP opponents. A powerful counterattack. Because 1050 is only priced at 100,000 pounds, not much more expensive than the formatetter. The FlatRite 1050 is a platform-based CTP that uses the imaging technology of the large screen laser imagesetter and the PlateRite 2080's automatic plate processing technology. 1050 is used to process red-sensitive CTP plates. Whether it is the CTP that exposes a moving laser to a stationary plate, or the CTP that moves a plate under the laser to expose and image, the manufacturers now favor the CTP as a platform model. For example, Dawang Screen's products, Agfa's Polaris, and Polaroid's Versitec are all platform-based CTP systems; Misomex, Highwater, Barco, and ICG's CTP are laser beams that move to a stationary plate exposure image. Platform type CTP.
Creo's first-generation CTP system is mainly used for monochrome or spot color prints that are rare in color and have few print jobs. In the UK, almost all book printers have chosen CTP technology. For example, Clays uses Barco's CTP; Caledonian uses Krause's products; Mackays uses Misomex's CTP system... The owner of Mackays believes that the advantages of CTP for book printing are threefold: first, the CTP plate is very clean; Second, the content of the CTP backup is very accurate; third, it reduces the preparation time of the printing press. However, color printing still occupies a large proportion in today's printing market, and the cost and flexibility of the work dictate whether printers choose CTP technology. Highwater and ICG have contributed to improving the flexibility of CTP. The two companies pointed out that their CTP system can both image on the plate, but also on the film imaging. They used actual products to refute the view that "CTP's flexibility is poor and non-digital workflows can't be covered." Other companies also pointed out that they can be integrated into the workflow of direct platemaking, whether it is analog or digital manuscripts. It is clear that the flexibility of CTP is improving. In terms of improving the flexibility of CTP, Saiangelo has made great achievements. The company's new product is a fully automatic multi-beam laser drum-type thermal CTP system, Lotem 800V. Its design is concise and practical, and the price is suitable. It adopts the Says Angel's Brisque workflow. Although there are some difficulties at present, Saeangelen believes that the prospect of using the Brisque workflow is promising. Lotem's flexibility in handling different types of manuscripts has improved, but it is relatively closed, and it only supports the company's Brisque workflow. Agfa's Galileo CTP system supports PostSript and PDF workflow. The Galileo system itself is large and expensive, which restricts the promotion and application of Galileo system in commercial printing to some extent. In the printing industry, people prefer manual or semi-automatic systems with low equipment investment and easy operation. For the investment printers, Agfa will adjust the product structure and introduce the manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic Calileo CTP products. The Calileo CTP supports two- or eight-page plates. The imaging device uses FD-YAG lasers. It is expected that the imaging devices will be improved in the future. Of course, improvements to imaging devices generally tend to make thermal imaging of plates.
Thermal CTP really "hot" up
The first generation of visible light CTP plates has achieved good results, and will also achieve results in the future, especially DuPont's Silvelith SDB plate, but the future development trend of thermal imaging is not to be questioned! The thermal CTP utilizes the large amount of thermal energy generated by the laser beam to react the coating on the surface of the aluminum plate to the visible light, forming an image area suitable for offset printing on the plate. The thermal laser energy used by the thermal CTP in the printing industry is the largest. Some price printers for thermal CTP systems have now become affordable. In fairness, the time for the development of thermal CTP has matured and the technical conditions have been met. The laser produced by Polaroid using fiber optics has low cost, high energy, reliability, and a very small laser spot. It is suitable for use in computer-to-computer systems, and is particularly suitable for CTP systems in which single-beam lasers and rotating lenses form images. Polaroid is targeting companies that produce equipment for thermal imaging of plates, thermal imaging of films, and thermal imaging of proofing materials. The development of fiber lasers has injected a "strengthener" into the thermal CTP. It is expected that many thermal imaging CTPs will be seen in the future. CTP plates are an important part of CTP. Compared to the photosensitive CTP plate, the thermal sensitivity of the CTP plate is slightly worse than that of the photosensitive CTP plate. However, the coating thickness of the thermal plate is not as high as that of the photographic plate. Gerber believes that the grain size on the aluminum plate will not affect the coating thickness of the thermal plate. DuPont's Silverlith SDT belongs to the category of thermal CTP plates. Gerbet's CTP system has a laser energy of 100mJ/cm2. This energy value can completely evaporate the visible coating part. In the thermal imaging, the laser beam spot is very small, and the exposure speed is very fast. Therefore, there is no heat of the photo that affects the image quality (ie, no heat is generated in the non-visible area, and the image does not deform). However, the residue of the coating remaining on the plate affects the printability of the plate, and the plate processing must be completely processed. DuPont's SDT plates have made the long-awaited direct free thermal imaging process a reality. The advent of the SDT plate promotes the availability of Optronics' thermal CTP system. The resolution of the SDT plate is 350 lpi, and the resistance force is as large as 500,000. Other companies have also introduced their own thermal CTP plates, some of which have been put into commercial use, and some are undergoing final tests. Presstek's plate material is unique, it uses a unique approach, the company's known as non-process thermal CTP plate. The reaction residue on the latest product, Gold plate, can be completely rinsed off with printing ink and fountain solution on the press, while the residue on the SDT plate is sucked off via a pump on Gerber's CTP system. In thermal technology innovation, Gerber is pleased with its progress. In the past, people thought that thermal CTP could only use external drum exposure. For example, Creo's products belong to outer drum thermal CTP. However, Gerber's successful internal drum thermal CTP gives a new look. The path of the laser beam of the inner drum thermal CTP reaches the printing plate is shorter, and the use of multiple laser exposure imaging can make up for the problem of the exposure speed, so the exposure speed is not inferior to the outer drum CTP. Gerber's practice proved that drum-type CTP is feasible for imaging thermal plates. In the thermal plate processing, some businesses are trying to simplify the processing of the plate. Kodak's first-generation IR (infrared laser) plates need to be "preheated" before exposure to ensure that the plate's thermal reactions proceed thoroughly. Today, the thermal plates of Kodak, Polaroid, and Horsell do not require "preheating" of plates. Horsell said that the new Elektra plate can be treated in the same way as the positive PS plate in the future. At the same time, Polaroid's Quantum NPH (NO PreHeat) plate has been put into commercial applications. Bob, the company's chief executive officer, looks to the future and says: "From a long-term development perspective, the ink-jet printing plate has great potential for development because it is a true green environmental protection media. Its working principle is The coating with the image information is sprayed onto the blank printing plate by ink jet." In fact, all thermal CTP plates are not low in price and are generally more expensive than the photosensitive CTP plate. Why are printers so fond of thermal CTPs? It is not surprising that thermal CTPs are expensive, because the removal of film in the workflow will undoubtedly save you money. From another perspective, the thermal CTP is indeed profitable. Now that some printers have invested in purchasing CTPs, it is no longer necessary to use film as an intermediate medium in the workflow.
People's attitude toward CTP is changing
Today, the arguments held by those who favor CTP technology have undergone subtle changes. Although their argument is that CTP saves the materials needed for prepress processing, they now emphasize the impact of CTP technology on the press shop. Laser imaging is a clean imaging method and the imaging accuracy of plates is high. The thermal CTP plate completely lacks the notion of "underexposure" and "overexposure", and exposure quality problems rarely occur with other CTP plates. In addition, the adaptability of the printing plate on the printing press is very stable. The printing press with automatic feeding plate unit is easier to operate, so people call the CTP the best partner for the automatic printing press (with conveying plate unit). Printers using CTP systems say that CTP reduces printing press work