CTP Make an Informed Decision

A Chemistry-free Workflow

Processless plates (almost always thermally imaged) eliminate the development step. These were created for use on direct imaging (DI) presses, where the plate is actually imaged on press, but now we see a lot of processless plates for platesetters, as well.

The term processless is a bit misleading, since most of these plates require some treatment after they've been imaged. Usually this just involves a wash stage and gumming. So "chemistry-free" is a more accurate term for these plates—but they still save time, chemical waste and energy. That said, a few plate models actually are ready to hang on the press right out of the platesetter.