Want to reduce your pollution footprint while speeding up plate production? Chemistry-free or processless plates can do just that.

By Bob Atkinson

The second thermal CTP technology is called thermal coalescence, and it’s used in Agfa’s :Azura and Heidelberg Saphira Chemfree metal plates. In this approach, the high-energy thermal laser fuses ink-receptive latex microbeads into the grain of the metal sheet to form the image. The non-image area is cleaned in a post-imaging gumming step.