What's New in CTP?

While the nation, and the printing industry, struggles with the economic downturn, many vendors are still moving forward with new products and solutions that will increase efficiency, cut labor costs, and provide value to printing companies. For 2009, a variety of CTP solutions will hit the market to better serve the needs of the commercial printer.

Agfa

Among the new products and services that Agfa is marketing this year is the :Azura TS thermal CTP plate, an upgrade of the original chemistry-free :Azura plate. :Azura TS offers up to 50 percent higher throughput and even sharper contrast for visual inspections. Agfa's PIA/GATF Intertech Award-winning :Energy Elite plate and several other new thermal, violet and chemistry-free plates were shown at Graph last year as well as the new :Avalon N8-50E platesetter, part of the :Avalon family of platesetters.

For those printers interested in wide-format inkjet printing, Agfa's :Anapurna XLS for indoor and outdoor signs and displays made its debut in North America last fall. Specially designed to handle heavy workloads, the :Anapurna XLS UV printer is set apart from its competition by its extremely high image quality, according to the company.

The XLS deploys new, Agfa-developed technology including the Universal Print Head with resolutions up to 1440 dpi, a closed-loop inking system, automated media handling, and maintenance systems to ensure quality of output with minimal operator intervention. It prints on rigid and flexible roll media in widths up to 100 inch offering high media flexibility.

Fuji Graphics

The Javelin 8800E/S/Z/ZX thermal platesetter series is the flagship of Fujifilm's 8-up CTP devices. It supports a wide range of plates formats and types, from 2-page plates up to eight-page plate sizes.

The Javelin 8800 Series features a next-generation Grating Light Valve (GLV) thermal imaging technology with a 512-channel or 1024-channel exposure head. Aimed at companies requiring high throughput at superior levels of image quality and consistency, the Javelin 8800ZX can image at a rate of 51 plates per hour.

For companies that require a lower price point, the Javelin 8800E images at 24 plates per hour, the Javelin 8800S images at 32 plates per hour, or the Javelin 8800Z images at 42 plates per hour. To ensure that a Javelin 8800 investment is protected for years of production, both the E and S models can be upgraded in the field to 32 and 42 plates per hour, respectively.

GLV is an optical micro-electromechanical system. Because of their efficiency and versatility, GLV modules have been developed for high-definition television monitors, electronic cinema projectors, commercial flight simulator displays, and computer-to-plate devices.

When used for digital imaging, GLV technology provides a fast and ultra-precise method of transferring digital images directly onto a printing plate. GLV-based laser diode exposure heads feature 512 channels (E, S or Z) or 1024 channels (ZX) of imaging laser that exposes plates in a wide swath. The imaging width of these exposure heads broadens the area that can be imaged with a single turn of the platesetter drum at low drum rotation speed.

Glunz & Jensen

The company's iCtP PlateWriter 2000 and PlateWriter 2400 inkjet CTP systems are designed for small to mid-size print shops. The PlateWriter 2400 is an addition to Glunz & Jensen's iCtP range of CTP systems, which produces press-ready aluminum plates without the use of chemical processing.

The PlateWriter 2400's inkjet CTP system uses an innovative technology that sets new standards in the cost, flexibility and speed of offset printing for small to medium format printers, according to the company.