Dear StevAgfa ,Dear AGFA-Vlad
thank you for your advice ,but where i live there is no agfa agent ,so what to do? i wont give up i will read more and ask experts like you more so i can understand what is good for our work.
Dear StevAgfa ,Dear AGFA-Vlad
thank you for your advice ,but where i live there is no agfa agent ,so what to do? i wont give up i will read more and ask experts like you more so i can understand what is good for our work.
Agfa has direct representation in over 40 countries,
and is represented by dealers/agents in over 120 more.
Surely, if you are interested in using Azura plates, then
that channel is an authorized Agfa rep/agent, who will
no doubt be able to answer directly, or get the answers
for you.
BTW - Vlad was suggesting that the best implementation
for Azura would be to use the optimized Agfa clean-out-
unit, like our C95 unit, rather than trying to modify a
traditional processor. This is what I suggested earlier as well.
i've had the azura for a few months now, and so far I have used no water in prepress, I have 3 small 10ltr tubs of waste gum to dispose of, have only had to clean the wash out unit once - which took half an hour - and have had 260k impressions from the plate on one job.
there have been no spots on plates, register is perfect, colour gets there quickly, and the plates are readily available
having said that, we have had issues with some very potent hard drying inks killing the plates after about 10k - then again they probably would have killed our old conventional plates too
the plate is not cheap, so for a place with a large turnover of plates it might not be the most cost effective solution.
for us here, long packaging runs, it works a dream. very small amounts of waste, very very low "man maintenance" and high reliability.
i also negotiated the free use of a gummer and stacker unit while we use the plate - but don't tell anyone
For those who are newcomers to this forum -
Beer was at first against the idea of a chem-free
plate that needed a special gum and a special
clean-out unit to clean-out the plate, prior to
mounting on press. Beer did his homework,
and in the end, saw the benefits of the Agfa/
Azura approach.
Beer -
Are there surprises that didn't surface in
the investigation? Does Azura perform as
advertised? Did you test any other plate
beforehand?
You'll have to ask you local Agfa reseller what the price would be,
as we sell through a well established distribution channel, WW.
However, given that 80% of the processless/chem-free and
reduced chemistry plates in use are Agfa's, I suspect you'll
find the plates competitively priced for its application.
ok firstly can i clarify i am in no way connected to any vendor at all - i'm just a simple pre-press jock ok
i was indeed against the idea of ANY chemistry in pre-press. Initially I jumped on the processless bandwagon, BUT there were issues for us with those plates. firstly they keep on developing - and i dont have space/room for a special area for storage. clean out on press is not good for us. we use one plate size only (B1) and it's our sheet size that varies. since the plate coating gets taken away by the substrate, what happens to the coating outside of the substrate size - and what are the long term affects? again - only applicable to us maybe.
so it was a question of the best alternative. sure - there's "less chemistry usage" plates from everyone - fuji, kodak, agfa - all the players, but my goal if i couldn't eliminate all chemistry was to get as close as possible. i wanted to reduce man hours cleaning, chemical usage, power usage, disposal costs - all the usual things but give a CLEAN plate to press
water usage in plate development is substantial over a year - all that has gone now. yes i have a ctp, yes we have had to slow it slightly with the azura (am going to an open day next week to view the new azura ts faster plate), and yes we have had an issue with aggressive substrates and inks.
however - the plate is quite robust under fair conditions - by which i mean with non aggressive inks and substrates. we have had very long run lengths and press have had to alter two things - nothing and nothing!
after a few months i now have a grand total of three 10ltr tubs to "dispose" of - actually it is possible to dilute the stuff and tip down the drain depending on your local authority rules. i dont however - and i'm very happy with my prediction of a max of 15 tubs a year for disposal, less than an hour a MONTH spent on the gum unit (including changing the gum tub which takes about a minute) and the excellent set up and back up agfa have given us
believe what you will, but i'm not an agfa fan - never have been, but there were good drivers for using this plate and agfa, and we are extremely happy.
Our experiences here are much likes Beers, except for the fact that we have been running the Azura's for close to 4 years now. We are a 20 x 28 Komori commercial printer (aprox 500 plates per month) running high end fashion, retail, and pharmaceutical work outside of Manhattan. Like Beer, we too tried another chem-free plate before the Azura's and were bitterly disappointed.
Printing with the Azura's has been fantastic. No spots, no plate breakdown (although our typical run length is <20,000 impressions) no switch in press room solutions or practices, and a reduction in the amount of make ready sheets for each form.
The upside to the Azura's was the elimination of chemistry, the elimination of high water usage to clean out the plate, and some of the best repeatability I have seen on any plate. Jobs that were produced 6 months ago are easily replicated.
The switch to the Azura, began and still is the cornerstone, of our environmentally friendlier practices.
The payoff for all this has been increased business, and 4 Silver and 1 Best of Category win for print at The Create Awards, all of which were produced on Azura plates.
Beer said :"and yes we have had an issue with aggressive substrates and inks."
Why not to try another AGFA plates AMIGO created especialy for that requirements?
PS. Don't ask me for the price and details - I'm a Serviceman for equpment not consumables
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