Pre-Press - Computer-to-plate

More coverage of Graph Expo product introductions . IT MAY be telling that the majority of presses in operation around the show floor of Graph Expo and Converting Expo 2006 last month were of the digital variety. Offset units were conspicuous in their absence. Digital presses have become part of the commercial printing mainstream, rather than being a specialty product segment or market niche. To emphasize this, Hewlett-Packard shared results from an InfoTrends study that surveyed a sampling of digital color printing buyers and producers. The research firm found that the percentage of color printing jobs with a run length

VALHALLA, NY—Sept. 27, 2006—Following previous announcements by parent company, Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., a number of Fujifilm businesses operating in the United States today announced changes to their company names. As of October 1, Tokyo-based Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. will take on a new holding company structure, launching Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, which will provide strategic management of the entire group, including two newly named operating companies: Fujifilm Corporation and Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. The shift in structure will strengthen consolidated management, enhance strategic planning and expand collaboration. The name changes have been made to better reflect the company’s expansion into business areas

Despite posting a 27 percent increase in profits for the second quarter, Agfa-Gevaert said it would eliminate as many as 2,000 jobs—roughly 14 percent of its workforce—to further cut costs. Of the total, 945 employees at its Brussels plant (25 percent of the workforce) would be let go. More than 600 other jobs will be cut in Europe, along with 430 in other parts of the world. The cuts will reportedly save Agfa $320 million a year by 2008. More than 40 percent of that savings will come from its health care unit.

“We had to reduce turn times,” declares Richard Beto, director of document services at the University of Texas at Austin. “It’s all ‘now, now, now.’ They want their jobs now.” This is what drove the 68-employee in-plant to install a new semi-automatic Fuji Saber Luxel Vx 9600 violet computer-to-plate device with a Rampage front end in July. The platesetter is making metal plates for the shop’s 40˝ and 29˝ presses. “The manual process was just taking too long,” adds Beto. By cutting out some of those extra steps, the in-plant was able to downsize its prepress staff, reducing costs. Print quality has also improved

THE PAST decade of computer-to-plate development has brought an incredible revolution in printing. By streamlining workflows and eliminating unneeded and costly steps, CTP has allowed printing departments to save time and increase productivity, while improving the quality of the final printed piece. 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

WHEN THE Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center’s in-plant moved into the computer-to-plate world in 2000 by installing an ITEK 2430 polyester platemaker, everything changed at the eight-employee shop. “Moving to CTP was a dramatic change for us and improved our productivity significantly,” says Dale Travitz, group leader. The platesetter produced plates for the shop’s four presses: a two-color Heidelberg, an A.B.Dick T51, a Multigraphics 1250 with a T-head, and a Davidson perfector. Those presses printed the majority of the Hershey Medical Center’s materials—everything from brochures and flyers to newsletters and forms. “But as demand for four-color printing continued to climb,

Kodak is celebrating the 10th anniversary of thermal computer-to-plate technology, which was invented by Kodak employees Dr. Neil Haley and Dan Gelbart. Kodak announced the first thermal CTP system at Drupa 1995, consisting of the KODAK DIRECT IMAGE Thermal Plate and the former CREO Thermal 3244 Platesetter. Beta tests for thermal CTP began in late 1995, and the system was fully commercialized by the middle of 1996. “Thermal CTP is one of the great imaging innovations in Kodak history and a primary building block of our graphic communications business today,” says Jeff Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. “Thermal CTP delivers tremendous value

Brian Wolfenden, director of Marketing Communications with Presstek, spoke with IPG about combining environmentally friendly methods with higher productivity: “One way to reduce both costs and time to market is to streamline plate production while at the same time improving print quality. As one example of this trend, Presstek has seen an increased interest in our chemistry-free computer-to-plate (CTP) and direct imaging (DI) press technologies, which contribute to the ability to deliver high quality, short-run color faster and at a competitive price.” “Like commercial printers, in-plants are being asked for shorter print runs with tighter delivery times. What was once one run of 50,000 might

When the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) added a Screen PlateRite 4000 to its in-plant seven years ago, it was happy to leave film behind and enter the computer-to-plate world. That world, though, was not entirely problem free. “It was starting to get expensive to eliminate the chemicals,” remarks Dean Gray, director of Materials Management. Plus, having to handle hazardous waste did not exactly make the in-plant an environmentally friendly place. The in-plant recently tackled this issue head-on by switching to chemistry-free Agfa :Azura plates. A new :Azura C85 processor has been installed, and the shop made an almost seamless transition to the new plates.

Boyd Cranford knew the quality of his in-plant’s work would likely increase once it installed the new four-up Kodak Magnus 400S platesetter. But it wasn’t until the shop reprinted a job it had done last year using plates from the Magnus that he saw the improvement with his own eyes. “The difference was just amazing,” enthuses Cranford, manager of Printing Services at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in St. John’s. The customer, he adds, was “ecstatic with the change. The image is just so much clearer, being first generation.” The 28-employee in-plant opted to use Kodak chemistry-free plates with the four-up CTP system, becoming one of the