Say Good-bye to Chemicals

Despite these advantages, though, conventional CTP still relies on the extraneous and unnecessary steps and costs of processing the plate after imaging.

Eliminating chemistry has a number of benefits. First and foremost is cost savings. Research by J Zarwan Partners (www.johnzarwan.com) shows that chemistry can cost up to 30 percent of the cost of the plate—and hidden costs can bring the total cost of platemaking even higher. These include the time it takes to process the plates. Moreover, processors must be cleaned. Chemistry needs to be stored and waste disposed. Processors and inventory also take up space, which costs money.