Offset Plate Technology: New and Improved

Offset plate manufacturers are looking to provide answers to some of commercial printers’ most pressing issues: average profit margins of two percent, collapsing run lengths requiring speedy makereadies; shrinking turnaround times, between 48 hours (at best) and 24 hours; environmental regulations; and competition from both within the market and from digital print providers.

Taking note of these trends are Kodak, which is in full swing with its Sonora process free plate; Presstek, which is scaling up production on its Zahara waterless plate; and the newly formed CRON-ECRM partnership, which is ramping up production on Blackwood, its UV plate line.

The Zahara plays into the strength of our R&D, noted Ralph Jenkins, Presstek director World Wide sales & marketing. From its earliest days, the company’s core efforts have been directed toward environmentally friendly technologies.

“If you look at our R&D initiatives, they are consistently toward environmentally-friendly, high performance technology,” he said. “We spearheaded that approach in our digital offset press (DI); in our thermal chemistry-free CTP technology; our full line of Freedom and Anthem plates; and now open platform CTP systems.”

The newly launched Zahara offset plate is designed for waterless printing, for narrow web and general commercial sheetfed applications, including labels, packaging, and plastic card production.

The 200-lpi Zahara plate can be imaged in any 830 nm thermal platemaking system, delivering up to 100,000 impressions. After imaging, the plate is rinsed in with water. Pre-heating, chemical processing, gumming or baking is not required.

What makes Zahara unique, said Jenkins, is its ability to process using just water. “It’s the elimination of the processing chemistries that point you in the direction of environmentally friendly plate products.”

Presstek is taking aim at Toray, which prior to the release of the Zahara was the only option when it came to waterless plates.

Just coming out of beta, Presstek customers are successfully running Zahara in Western and Eastern Europe, and in North America.

Next up is the commercial launch in Japan, not only the largest waterless market in the world but also Toray’s home base.

Presstek announced the product through the Japan Waterless Printing Association and is currently setting up programs with potential distributors.

Despite its obvious quality, cost, and environmental benefits, waterless printing has never caught on as a printing method of choice. “The whole industry lags behind because there was only one supplier; we are hearing from the marketplace that a second supplier will benefit the whole waterless printing industry,” Jenkins said.

“The reason I am encouraged and optimistic is within the short period of time announcing our intent, a number of inquiries from major distributors of the product expressed interest in replacing their existing Toray business,” he said.

The Zahara product’s value proposition begins with its being environmentally-friendly, a big sell in the North American, Western European, and Japanese markets. Running waterless reduces press makeready time and waste—a factor when the substrate—such as plastics and synthetics—is expensive.

On performance, Jenkins reported, Zahara is also delivering benefits over the competition, “with one of the biggest a faster rollup.”

To help its customers map out a sustainable future, Kodak commercially released Sonora XP process free plates in Europe in 2012; the product was first announced as a test product at drupa 2008. The plate, designed to deliver both economic and environmental benefits, eliminates the processing step required by traditional thermal plates and provides significant energy, water, and waste reductions without requiring printers to make sacrifices on productivity or print capabilities, said Todd Bigger, WW director of product management & marketing, Kodak.

The migration to process free is a good fit in response to market trends, he added.

“Printers are struggling with costs,” noted Bigger. “With process free gains are made through reduction of chemistries and maintenance. Sonora offers a significant opportunity to become more efficient and more competitive.”

Sonora is not Kodak’s first process free plate, but it is much improved upon from its predecessor, Thermal Direct, said Bigger. It’s a more robust plate technology, delivering longer run lengths, better chemical resistance for UV print environment, and a higher quality print, he added.

The Sonora XP delivers 200 lpi and a 200,000 run length capability for web presses.

The print quality also improves with a process free workflow. The status of the processor is eliminated as a factor in image quality.

Sonora technology has more than 2,200 global customers, and a 200 percent year-over-year increase in sales, based on 2013-2014 data, reported Bigger.

The primary segment is in commercial segment, where printers face quality, run length, and turnaround pressure. Also, in many regions the market is under tight regulations from an environmental standpoint. Process free, says Bigger, gives printers the ability to eliminate harsh chemicals and market their environmental friendliness for a breakaway from the competition.

Kodak is broadening the Sonora to expand to all print environments; Sonora News is designed for the newspaper segment. “The goal is, in the future, an environment where process free used throughout the print industry ridding the world of process and non-sustainable technology.”

With the use of Sonora, customers collectively saved (so far) 70 million gallons of water, 102 million kilowatt hours of energy, and 264,000 gallons of plate chemistry. A typical plate process requires four gallons of water for every plate made

Presstek is also pursuing the newspaper market. Still in beta, Zahara News is a special version of the waterless plate designed for the Cortina KBA press platform. “This is another market that has been asking for an alternative plate for years,” said Jenkins. “We fine tuned the design of the plate—it’s different technology than for the commercial market. We are focused on the unique production needs of the newspaper market vs. that the quality and resolution needs of the commercial market. There are some attributes centered around imaging speed that are very important for this market.”

Zahara News is now running at two test sites, with the initial results very promising. The plan is for commercial release later in 2015.

While the trend is toward process-free, there are current limitations in that technology that does not work for all printers, whether it be the higher plate pricing, lack of imaged plate contrast, no UV ink support, or run-length limitations, said John Marzec, director of product management, CRON-ECRM.

CRON-ECRM LLC is a newly formed joint venture of China’s Hangzhou CRON Machinery & Electronics Co., Ltd, and ECRM Imaging Systems, first announced last September. The company’s primary technology is thermal and UV platesetters and UV plates. It doesn’t manufacture thermal plates.

“The CRON-ECRM (Blackwood) plate meets the needs of today's offset printer with traditional or UV ink support,” he says. It’s also providing the highest quality plate with the economics that work, with market pricing typically 30-50 percent less than that of competitors.

“It all starts with using the highest quality aluminum base, then forming a multi-layer composite grain structure to provide superior wear resistance, an even coating formulation provides a stable sensitivity and accurate dot reproduction for one to 99 percent at 400 lpi performance,” Marzec said.

CRON-ECRM is putting distribution in place to provide these plates to the U.S. market.  The Blackwood production plant recently expanded to provide a total capacity of over 40 million square meters of plates for worldwide distribution, Marzec explained.  

“With these new advanced high speed production lines, automation with inline

QC/Inspection systems ensures superior quality control,” he says. “The science behind our plate technology is in providing a high sensitivity, consistent quality, with superior on-press durability. This is not old technology, but industry-leading technology.”

Over and above the printing plate, CRON-ECRM offers additional products that further reduce the environmental impact while improving on process control.

Its CRD (Chemistry Replenish Developer) allows the printer to see additional chemistry savings by accurately controlling the developer conductivity, replenishing only when needed versus standard plate processor replenishing systems. This results in better process control and chemistry savings of up to 40 percent, said Marzac. The eventual chemistry waste can then be cycled through a waste reduction unit that will separate out 80 percent of the water volume.