CTP Minus The Processing

"Lastra bought the plate businesses of Western Litho and Mitsubishi Chemical, so over the past year we've been concentrating on integrating the technology we acquired," he explains.

One approach Lastra is pursuing is a switchable polymer product (requiring no post-exposure step) and the other is an on-press wash-off technology, he says. Both are designed to be imaged by thermal IR lasers.