Hot plate process will become more and more "hot"

The letter “T” (Thermal) will be the hallmark of the Imprinta show because people have to mention “Thermography Technology” when it comes to the CTP computer direct plate process next year.

Thermal imaging technology mainly uses high-efficiency laser beam for plate making, which is very inexpensive and opens up a brand new application for the printing industry. Thermal imaging plates have many advantages over traditional silver or polyester plates. All plate processes can be performed under normal daylight because the plates react only to heat rather than light. With hot plate technology, platemaking equipment is also beneficial, and it is designed to completely discard expensive robotic devices.

The same is true for media manufacturers. They no longer need to avoid light coating and packaging equipment when producing plates, thus ensuring continuous plate-making work, omitting all light-related protective measures.

The thermal imaging version first appeared on the stand of Kodak and Presstek at the 95 Drupa show. The "Kodak IR" plate of Kodak's collaboration with Creo was arousing great interest from the attendees at the time. Its product draws on the thermal imaging knowledge of the company's Approval proofing system, using an aluminum plate as a substrate and overlaying the coating material. Creo, as a collaborator, produced the appropriate platemaking machine for it. This has obvious advantages for Creo, because the plate does not need any automatic device and the price is relatively low, but it can also expand the CTP market, so earlier this year Creo launched the Creo Trendsetter for its size. 3244 platesetter. At this point, thermal imaging technology has flourished.

The emergence of this technology surprised the competitors because it challenged the market. Of course, this technology is not perfect, it not only requires the general plate-making process, but also need to heat the plate including the coating layer in advance to ensure that the entire image is correctly converted.

In the process of plate making, the printing plate is to use a laser beam to activate the polymer polyester material of the coating layer to produce another cured high-molecular polymer to realize the imaging process. If the laser beam fails to penetrate the thickness of the coating layer or covers it incompletely, it will result in uneven image formation and affect the printing effect. Therefore, the temperature of the preheating furnace must be under precise control. It is as rough as a traditional platemaking furnace.

In addition, the printing plate must be able to adapt to large-volume job printing. The image is clear and wear-resistant. This is also a challenge for the thermal imaging technology. If it does not, it must achieve a magical effect. GATF's tests show that Kodak and Creo can work together with a resolution of up to 4 microns for this plate, while the Creo laser beam has a resolution of only 10 microns. Needless to say, the image quality of this plate is very high, clear and delicate, and it can absolutely compete with the universal plate.

It is undeniable that Kodak's cooperation with Creo has been a complete success. At least in the next nine months, Kodak will be the sole master of this market, and Creo will become the only manufacturer to provide such a platemaking machine.

But at the Imprinta show, this form may have to change. Polychrom also produced a Quantum 830 plate that is somewhat similar to the Kodak version. Although it still requires a baking process, the process is insignificant. Polychrom's director Paul Boorman acknowledged that their development began after the inspiration of Kodak and Creo, but he also claimed that their research is completely different from that of Kodak. Their products are more resistant to chemicals than Kodak. corrosion.

Different orientations also punished Polychrome’s printing plate because its plate exposure time was longer, requiring 180 million Joules of heat per image, and Kodak's plates only used 140 million gigajoules. However, Polychrome has stated that it will continue to work hard and eventually catch up with Kodak.

From the above data, we can also see that the thermal imaging plate requires more heat, the imaging time is longer than the silver salt, polyester version, and is currently limited to imaging outside the drum. The inner drum imaging technology has progressed slowly and can not reach the practical stage. It is believed that the technical progress in the future will eventually enable the drum drum to develop synchronously outside the drum.

The prepress general manager of Gerber Prepress stated that they will also enter the hotline field. He said: “We believe that the silver grain imaging is now the best, but it is better to consider other advanced technologies.” At Imprinta, they will exhibit “5 to 6” thermal images. Material, dual laser head imaging, for the company's own Crescent platesetter.

In addition, Linotype-Hell and Optronics also exhibited their laser heads at Imprinta. Seychelles also promised to equip its Lotem platesetter with a thermal imaging version, and Agfa will certainly be equipped with this technology for its Galileo machine.

However, Creo's Trendsetters are well-deserved leaders in four-page or large-format printing. “We are convinced that thermal imaging technology will become the mainstream of future CTP.” According to David Brown, vice president of Creo, at the end of this year, more than three quarters of all Creo's platemaking machines will be equipped with thermal imaging heads.

The Trendsetters platesetter has a wide format, ranging from 8 sheets of paper to GTO. It currently has 80 users, mostly Kodak plates, 6 Polychroms, 2 Pressteks, and 7 Polaroid imaging films.
Thermal imaging technology can be used for both printing plates and printing films. Only one imaging machine can be used to make imaging films, plates, and proofs. Creo's Gebt predicts that thermal imaging will blow up a whirlwind at Imprinta because even the silver version of the active defender, DuPont, purchased a hot version from Creo.

Nowadays, more and more hot editions have come to the market. External drum imaging can be up to 830 nanometers, with 1064 nanometers of internal drum. In addition to Polychrome and Kodak mentioned above, companies such as Horsell, Imation, Agfa, Polaroid, etc. are also joining the ranks.

Kodak recently introduced a new plate that does not require preheating and uses a 1064 nanometer laser beam. Polychrome also introduced a plate that does not require pre-heating. The entire process is the same as its traditional CTX version.

This NPH Quantum plate requires less laser energy than Kodak and its predecessor, Quantum. The coating of CZ with a layer of carbon on the plate can eliminate banding conditions caused by changes in laser energy. It works very well with Creo and incompatible Gerber platesetters. “It is our killer.” Dawei said, “So far, there haven’t been any problems, and the quality of the prints has nothing to say.”

For Horsell, there are similar experiences. They launched Electra DC Hot with the combination of Capricorn and Gemini coating technology. According to the company's technical expert Ted Fryer, the company has been exploring the use of the polyester version in the CTP, but found the wrong path. Because of the limited market prospects in this sector, people are more willing to work in a normal environment with light, and hope that the plates will be robust and easy to store.

The Horsell plate uses a laser system to heat soften the coating and can be applied to a conventional plate-setter. The entire process does not require preheating, baking, or adding other parts to the machine. Horsell believes that its products will be the winners in the market. For this reason, it has conducted extensive experiments and applied for patents. Now Electra DC products have entered the production stage from the experimental stage, and the sales price is also reasonable.

So far, this type of laser-softening external drum plate has reached a wavelength of 830 nanometers, and internal drum platemaking is also in the development stage. However, Polychrome and Horsell are considering another new laser application technology—laser ablation technology—to complete imaging by evaporating the printing plate coating with a laser beam. This idea should not be novel. A few years ago, IBM had used high-pressure discharge needles to evaporate the aluminum book on the polyester coating layer, but it did not continue to develop.

The pressure-ablation flag of Presstek, which used ablation technology in all its plates, was more in the market than other companies offered. (A Quickmaster DI requires 4 plates). At present, this technology can only be applied to limited waterless printing, but at Imprinta, they will exhibit plates suitable for wet printing, and will also discuss technologies that are more suitable for popularization.

The current printing plates they provide to the market have met the requirements of simple process and operation in daylight conditions. They only need to peel the outer wrapping paper and place it on the outer drum of the engraving machine. There are no chemical substances and technical requirements are not high. After imaging, remove the debris and print it on a printing press.

It's a good thing, but we can't expect the hot plate to completely replace other imaging plates, at least not immediately. For example, DuPont's Silverlith SDB printing plate has a huge number and has a large share in the U.S. market. More than 70% of Gerber machines are equipped with Silverlith plates. This combination can meet users' requirements for high-speed imaging and automated plate making.

This may not be the case for most countries in the world. They are all using sheetfed printers from different vendors and adopting different formats. They cannot invest huge sums of money in building an automatic platemaking system. For them, thermal imaging technology will provide the best solution for their CTP, and most importantly, the price is reasonable. This indeed constitutes a potentially stable and huge consumer market. It is no wonder that those who make plates and platesetters are expecting the current Imprinta exhibition to be an unprecedented “T” (hot) event.