Move Ahead With CTP

Going direct-to-plate can save you time, material costs and labor expenses—especially when using polyester plates. Are you ready to move your shop forward?

Employee turnover is a regular challenge for Dave Hager, print shop supervisor at the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers, Conn. Since Osborn is a medium-security facility, inmates are moved continuously throughout the system. This leaves little time for a learning curve.

"We have a high rate of turnover and a constant flux of new inmates with no experience," Hager explains. This problem was resolved in the prepress area when Hager purchased an A.B.Dick Digital PlateMaster (DPM)2000 CPS.

"We can train an inmate in little time with minimal supervision," notes Hager, who is responsible for 25 print shop inmate employees that work for Correctional Enterprises of Connecticut (CEC).

CEC prints work for the State of Connecticut, local municipalities, schools and non-profit organizations. It produces about 200 polyester plates per month. About 80 percent of its work goes directly from a Mac or PC to the DPM2000. Hager says it has fit well with the other equipment at his shop—including three new Hamada presses.

Now's The Time For CTP

For shops that also want to move to a computer-to-plate workflow, now is a good time to do it, says Peter Vanderlaan, product development manager for electronic imaging hardware for Fuji Photo Film U.S.A.

"Prices of equipment are coming down, and there is a big knowledge base out there to make the transition easier," he notes. Moving to a CTP workflow will boost production, allow for electronic storage of jobs formerly saved as film, lower material costs and lower waste, Vanderlaan adds.

But before making a purchase, Vanderlaan gives this advice to managers:

• Look at the capital investment in equipment and make sure you will get a return on that investment.

• Make sure your shop already has a digital workflow in place. Also, your server must have enough storage space to handle fully imposed jobs.

• Be prepared to educate yourself and your staff—there's a lot to learn.

Polyester plates have made CTP a more viable option for in-plants. Once you think you are ready, here are some products vendors have waiting for you.

The Latest CTP Solutions

From A.B.Dick comes the DPM2000 CPS. With a maximum media size of 161⁄2x23˝, the DPM2000 CPS offers an integrated in-line plate processing system and plate cutter. Able to produce over 55 plates per hour, the in-line plate cutter assures automatic, precise cutting as each plate is completed. It includes a RIP, which accepts PostScript files from all major computer platforms. Accessories include an expansion hard drive, a SCSI connection kit, and Zip and SyJet internal drives.

With Agfa's SelectSet Avantra 25E, you get an 18x25˝ format imagesetter— ideal for single page or two-up jobs, such as brochures, newsletters or magazines. OptiSpot technology ensures spot size at 1,200 and 1,800 dpi levels. Optional DualSupply cassettes double your media supply or allow you to keep two media types ready at all times. It outputs film, paper, or polyester plate materials with equal accuracy using Agfa's OptiFocus feature, which automatically adjusts the optics without any operator intervention.

Although primarily designed to expose aluminum plates, the Barco Graphics Crescent II range of platesetters can handle film and polyester plates, as well. Crescent platesetters are internal drum based, multi-resolution plate imaging devices, designed for medium- to high-volume four-color and black-and-white printing. Unattended, automatic, daylight operation is achieved when used with the optional Escort II autoloader. The platesetters also feature remote diagnostics, small footprints and screen rulings up to 300 lpi.

The latest addition to the Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. line of computer-to-plate products is the Javelin Luxel T9000 CTP. This is a thermal eight-page CTP device, able to output 12 plates an hour at 2,400 dpi. It offers an automatic internal plate punch. The standard plate loading mechanism is semi-automatic, with a two-tray system for plate loading/unloading. Automatic plate loading is available with the optional T-9000 AL autoloader and T-9000 Conveyer for in-line processing.

Quicksetter from Heidelberg Prepress provides small-format printers with the versatility of going directly to red-sensitive film, or to paper or polyester plate. It offers a dozen resolution steps, from 1,000 to 3,386 rasters per inch, a 16˝ width, a plug-and-play SCSI II interface, and a top speed of 25.4˝ per minute. Quicksetter is designed for ease of use, so that just about anyone in the print shop can be trained to use it.

The Mitsubishi SDP-Eco1630 Platesetting System accelerates CTP capabilities for both black-and-white and spot-color applications for sheetfed and small web presses up to 165⁄16x2213⁄16˝. Featuring high-speed capstan technology, it produces up to 78 plates per hour at 1,200 dpi and delivers resolutions of 1,016 dpi, 1,200 dpi and 1,500 dpi. Using up to two-thirds less chemistry than current analog and digital systems, it has a self-contained processor that operates with two new, ready-to-use chemistries designed to image Mitsubishi Silver DigiPlate paper and polyester materials.

The DPX System Platesetter from Purup-Eskofot is designed for small offset presses and can be connected directly to your Mac or PC. Image position on the plate is controlled by the RIP and is set up according to your specifications. The platesetter integrates all processes in one unit. The DPX has two roll magazines, which let you use a variety of plate sizes and printing presses. It produces 29 plates per hour at 900 dpi or 14 plates per hour at 3,600 dpi using the Digital Silver Halide Polyester Exposure System.

The Tanto 5120 imagesetter, an eight-page imagesetter from Screen (USA), images on 120 channels as the drum spins at 270 or 420 rpm. Tanto produces in spiral mode 1,852 square inches per minute at 1,200 dpi, and 926 square inches per minute at 2,400 dpi. It images up to 44.1˝ in the primary scanning direction, with maximum media size of 33x45˝ and minimum media size of 24x32.7˝. Tanto outputs film and plates. Flexible plates are sent to the take-up cassette for processing.

The Xanté PlateMaker 3 computer-to-plate system offers output at up to 2,400x2,400 dpi and oversized printing up to 13x351⁄2˝. Featuring X-ACT, Halftone Calibration Technology, and Densitometer Support, the PlateMaker 3 allows you to print plates that are immediately ready for press with no intermediate steps required. This system not only prints on Xanté Myriad 2 polyester plates, but also on paper and film for a wide range of uses, including camera-ready art and proofing.

Something Blue

Blame Sony. For that matter, blame Pioneer. (Or, depending on where you sit on the issue, thank them.) These two major Japanese suppliers are feeding the race to develop the perfect blue-laser-based, gallium-nitride disk player, both trailing the current leader, Nichia Chemical Industries.

Why should you care?

Three letters: C-T-P.

Blue lasers, or shorter wavelength violet lasers, will be in big demand for next-generation storage and communications systems. This technology is also prime for the platesetting market. It affords a much cheaper consumable—the laser—to operate in a high-speed platesetting capacity.

Escher-Grad was the first vendor to announce a platesetter based on blue-diode laser technology. The Cobalt 8—a 32x40˝ design based on the same chassis as the existing EG-8200 film imagesetter—is promising to be both fast (3.3 minutes per plate at 2,540 dpi) and cheap (less than $80,000). However, it will not initially support a punch, and plate loading is purely a manual operation.

The Cobalt 8 will expose visible-light plates from Agfa or Fuji. It can be configured to run at any two resolutions from 800 dpi to 3,000 dpi.

As of this minute, several vendors are developing blue platesetters, most shooting for a DRUPA 2000 launch in late May. No doubt by then there will be more than just words supporting, or discouraging, the blue laser's impact on future CTP purchase decisions, particularly by smaller in-plants not yet vested in CTP. For now, however, words will have to suffice—as Escher-Grad's Cobalt 8 is the only formally announced device, and even the most outspoken technology movers and shakers are playing this CTP issue close to the vest.

—by Marie Alonso