Polyester plates printed on Laser printers

[jecraig5]

Hello, I need advice on polyester plates printed on lasers printers.

We currently have a ITEK 430 camera/platemaker that we use for most jobs. I would like to get rid of this machine and just use some sort of digital system. I am not really wanting to buy a CTP system, I want to utilize these polyester plates that can be printed on regular laser printers. For really tight registration and for lots of screens and halftones, I use metal plates.

For some jobs with halftones and fine lines we use polyester plates printed on a HP 5000. We need to "double fuse" the plates when we use those plates. The plates we use were bought five years ago and the company that sold them is no longer in business. So I am looking for a new brand of plates.

So my questions are:

1. What are the best brands for printing lasers plates?

2. What Printers/copiers work best?

Thanks!

[maynardsayswhat]

I'm currently in the process of changing over our 1/2 color offset work (a lot of forms on a t-head) to use the Hurst SmartPlate rather than sending everything to film/metal plate. I've used several laser plates in the past and have had the fewest problems with Hurst.

I've imaged the plates with an HP 5000, Xerox Doc12 and now a KM c6500 and aside from a few machine-specific quirks, all three have worked out pretty well. The HP uses a cooler fuser and is commonly considered to induce less shrink but unless you're looking at >1pt trap registration, I've never had major issues with the other output devices.

Generally speaking I don't use laser plates for hairline registration jobs or anything with complicated halftone/gradients. But they work very well for simple k- or 2c-printing in >10m volume runs. Metal plates are still superior in my experience for tight halftones and longer runs but at $1-2 a plate, the laser plates are very attractive for many jobs.

One thing I've noticed is that the substrate can sometimes dictate the plate. With a coarse 20# bond, the finer detail of the halftone dot on a metal plate won't even matter due to spread, for instance.

Hope that helps, good luck!

[jecraig5]

Thanks Maynard!

Right now it looks like I have three options for laser plates on the HP 5000:

Hurst Chemical Smartplate
Ultrafine laser plates
Buckingham Laser plates

Does anyone have any reviews or opinions on these three medias?

[theinkman@aol.com]

jecraig5
I also converted from my itek 430. I tried using poly plates on the HP5000, (I think they were the Genie plate) and had no luck at all. They ran too dry and broke down very fast. I tried the xante plates (sampled and imaged from xante) with the same results. Then I came across the Kimosetter plate maker which images on their own plates using a thermal ribbon method and have had very good results! They run great and I routinely get 5-10m impressions without breaking down (unless there is a tint or screen on the plate, it may break down sooner) You image them right from the computer. I run them on a ryobi 3302 with my standard fountain solution. Hope that helps!

[BillJ]

There is also Autotype Omega and Graphline Optima DS. If you have the HP5000 they should work well as long as it is set up correctly. That saves over buying a new printer or a Kimosetter.

[robbg439]

I image plates on a 5100 and use them on a hamada 611. I have used all of the brands you mentioned without ever noticing a difference from one brand to another. I just buy whatever I can find cheapest at a given moment. I'm pretty sure none of these companies are actually manufacturing the polyester substrate, so I would cynically assume it all comes from the same place anyway. Keep in mind that my highest print run is under 1000 impressions, so your mileage may vary.

[jecraig5]

Thanks! I appreciate all your input!

[UnlimitedBT]

Hi guys, we use HP 5100 with Xante Myriad plates - the best results out of all.
As was mentioned before - you must double fuse the plate - after imaging send a blank page (or with the dot somewhere where it does no matter) and run it again.
Another important thing - printer must be set to "cardstock"
Driver must be "PostScript" also comfigured to "cardstock in by-pass tray"
Resolution must be set to "pro-1200"

Printer have to be in absolutelly great shape - fuser, transfer roller, etc.
Cartridge better OEM.
Everything works fine to about 25 - 40 % of estimated life than some quality loss noticed.
I guess for simplicity and general cost of plate making it is no big deal at all.
Problem with the cartridge that Charge roller picks-up too much of some-kind residue from plates and than quality loss occur. I am a Business equipment service engineer and can easy dis-assembly cartridge and clean that roller, but generelly you would have to change over a half full cartridge to keep quality on the top of what it can be using this system.
Also for longer runs and better registration we use "repositionable glue", just spray back of the plate. It makes Make-ready to be a killer - plate have to unclamped and peeled off everytime for adjustment, but once set with run nice - no stretching, close in register.

[UnlimitedBT]

I have to admit that I am a total rookie in printing that went from zero to fix my own presses - no big deal - AB-Dick 360 and Ryobi 3200 pfa, but if it would not be for this set-up (poly plate on HP-5100) We would never get in to offset

[PrintingSupply]

As to the question about poly plates and laser printers (the best plates and the best printers), there is no one answer. I've found that the real inexpensive way to get started is to use the HP 5000 or HP 5100 printer, along with poly plates supplied by one of several companies. Although the best known poly plate is probably the Hurst Smartplate, one can save a bit by using the DAA Genie plates ... which is exactly the same plate. So are the Baseline brand plates, I believe. Xante plates (Myriad) are for the Xante platemaker ... a little better quality but more money. If you have a Xante, there is now a cheaper "X" plate which claims to work as well, but I don't think it's quite as good. If you try a poly plate on your 5000 printer and things don't work out right away, don't be surprised. Things have to be just right. The printer has to be in great condition, the settings have to be correct (slowest speed, hottest setting, proper dpi, etc.). Also, many printers have found that baking the plate a bit is a real key. Try running it through a second time while blank. Some inventive folks even bake their plates a few seconds in a shrink wrap tunnel. There are also several plate prep chemicals from Hurst, Xante, DAA and others to help prevent background tinting and toner scatter, and to protect the image area. There's more ... too much to put here. I have a sheet which which I prepared which spells out many of the problems and offers solutions. Folks can let me know if they want me to send one out.