CSU Long Beach Goes Computer-to-plate

It seems like just a couple years ago that imagesetters were all the rage. But these days it’s getting increasingly difficult to keep one running due to the shrinking availability of film.

Just ask Mike Sternfeld, manager of the Print Shop at California State University-Long Beach. When Kodak stopped making film for his in-plant’s ECRM Mako 3650, he had to turn to a distributor in New York. It started to get very expensive.

So recently, after a two-year search, the eight-employee in-plant did away with film altogether and installed a new Presstek Vector TX52 thermal computer-to-plate device running Freedom chemistry-free plates. Included in the package was a punch and an Epson Stylus Pro 4880 proofer.

“For a small shop like us, it is just a wonderful tool,” says Sternfeld. It takes just four minutes to make plates now, he says, and the quality is outstanding.

“We can hold a better dot,” he affirms.

The platesetter makes plates for the shop’s three A.B.Dick 9800s—all with T-heads—and its two-color Hamada C248.

The eight-color Epson 4880 provides much more accurate color on proofs than the in-plant’s previous proofers, he says.

A chargeback operation, the in-plant saved its profits for years to purchase the equipment, which totaled about $50,000. Since he had budgeted $75,000, Sternfeld has plans to get a new color copier with the surplus.

“That’s my next project,” he says.