Miracle Plates

[ajr]

JP Imaging creates 'miracle' coating-free plate

printweek.com, 20 July 2009

A company set up by two former Agfa and Kodak R&D directors has applied for patent protection for what it is calling "the most important technology breakthrough since the introduction of thermal CTP".

The company, JP Imaging (JPI), claims to have developed a method of laser exposure on uncoated standard grained and anodised aluminium that will switch it from its normal (oxidised) hydrophobic state to a hydrophilic state.

JPI founders Dr Rod Potts and Dr Peter Bennett, former R&D directors for lithographic printing plates at Agfa and Kodak respectively, have developed the technology in collaboration with Liverpool University with partial funding from the UK government.

The breakthrough centres around the use of an ultra-fast laser, which pulses once every 10-14 seconds, (100 trillion times a second) to switch the ink receptivity of uncoated grained and anodised aluminium.

The laser causes the aluminium surface to temporarily hydrophilise, meaning the plate will perform in the same manner on press as any other digitally exposed plate, with the imaged areas taking fount and the non-imaged areas taking ink.

Former DuPont plate manufacturing manager John Adamson, who co-founded JPI with Potts and Bennett, claimed that the new technology had "massive environmental implications" for the printing industry.

JPI's so called "miracle plate" could offer massive environmental savings on coating chemicals, coating solvents and energy consumption during plate manufacture and subsequent use.

Adamson said: "This is the biggest breakthrough in CTP since thermal. JPI has the former R&D directors of both Kodak and Agfa. They have combined their formidable technical expertise to create the Holy Grail - CTP plates that don't need coatings. Who needs switchable coating polymers when you can have switchable Aluminium? The implications for the industry are phenomenal."

In addition, the elimination of plate coating means that the plate can be re-imaged using the same process once the ink has been removed and the plate returned to its normal hydrophobic state by allowing to stand for several days or by heating for a few minutes in an oven.

According to JPI, the technology will allow blank aluminium plates to be re-imaged multiple times. The company has demonstrated re-imaging and re-printing a plate up to five times in a lab.

Adamson added: "The unique feature of this technology is the use of ultra-fast pulsed lasers. This opens up a whole new field of science to us and is so novel that we have patented the technology. Normal CTP technology uses totally different lasers and needs chemical coatings on the digital plates. We don't. We think this technology will revolutionise CTP and reduce the environmental demands of the printing industry."

JPI said that it hoped to bring the technology to market "within two years".

[gordo]

I can hardly wait for the arguments as to whether these plates are truly processless since exposing them constitutes a process. :-)

best, gordon p
My print blog here: Quality In Print
Current topic: Print in the internet age – a customer's perspective raises some questions

[Cory Smith]

Andy Tribute will have an article on this tomorrow about this announcement. I will be sure to post it up here as well.

[Ritter]

Now, how much longer before we just get rid of changeable plates completely? I argued just the other day that once CtP was so optimized it needed nothing but exposure the next logical step is to take the plates out of the equation completely. R&D guys get out your thinking caps!

[SteveAgfa]

Ritter -

WRT erasable plates on press -

CreoScitex at GraphExpo 2000 showed the SP press technology - a spray-on emulsion.
This emulsion was the core Agfa thermofuse technology found in Azura - we called
the emulsion in the bottle LiteSpeed.

Also - check-out ManRoland - and their DicoWeb.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had an interesting re-usable plate technology demo'd at Drupa 2004.

R&D indeed has had their thinking caps on for your quest for quite a while.

Regards,

[gordo]

Ritter - WRT erasable plates on press -

CreoScitex at GraphExpo 2000 showed the SP press technology - a spray-on emulsion.
This emulsion was the core Agfa thermofuse technology found in Azura - we called the emulsion in the bottle LiteSpeed.

Also - check-out ManRoland - and their DicoWeb.

The SP press technology was a terrific idea, where a plate was mounted on the press, then the Agfa LiteSpeed coating was sprayed on after which it was exposed and run. After the run the coating was washed off and recoated and exposed again. I think it was an eight minute changeover from one job to the next (two-up press). Unfortunately, if memory serves, the technology was hampered by press spray powder getting into the coating and causing spots.

The DicoWeb used a ribbon of coating media that was thermally transfered onto a blank plate on the press using a Creo laser mounted on press. After the run the coating is removed and the plate reimaged. Not sure how many DicoWebs were installed though.

best, gordon p

My print blog here: Quality In Print
Current topic: Print in the internet age – a customer's perspective raises some questions

[Ritter]

Gordo and Steve,
Your responses kind of have me hot and bothered. I formerly worked with a Heidelberg SM74DI (another technology I'm aware, but similar idea) that the DI function was unused because of it's ease of breaking expensive imagesetter parts and having to stop the press for too long to image the plates. The company purchased a Prosetter but the DI units on the press units remained as a backup in the extremely rare occasion of the platesetter being inoperable. It was a simple time and money decision as to why the DI was dumped (although DI doesn't have reusable plates). I do understand how immature technology in the real-world can fail catastrophically and I don't think I am being naive or idealistic about this but what you are telling me is that these vendors dropped this technology before going through to full maturity with it based on a lack of short-term sales or (less sincerely) to rather increase profits through consumable sales? I surely hope that this technology is still being researched in the lab rather than only the straight and narrow tradtional CtP. Whatever happened to the greater good of less=more and long term profit?
This is just beginning to sound like classic example of Gillette or Bic having the technology and knowhow to produce a razor that will basically last a lifetime but keeping it out of the market place to prevent a collapse in repeat sales.

[gordo]

I can't speak for Agfa however, I'll try and answer your comments.

Gordo and Steve,
Your responses kind of have me hot and bothered. I formerly worked with a Heidelberg SM74DI (another technology I'm aware, but similar idea) that the DI function was unused because of it's ease of breaking expensive imagesetter parts and having to stop the press for too long to image the plates.

DI presses (from HD, Presstek etc.) have been in successful use since at least the late 80s. The imaging heads on the larger size Komori, MAN, HD, etc. presses were the Creo Squarespot heads which are inherently more reliable than the imaging heads on the smaller DIs. I doubt that the reason for not using the on-press plate imaging that you've experienced had anything to do with any ease of breaking imagesetter parts.

I do understand how immature technology in the real-world can fail catastrophically and I don't think I am being naive or idealistic about this but what you are telling me is that these vendors dropped this technology before going through to full maturity with it based on a lack of short-term sales or (less sincerely) to rather increase profits through consumable sales?

The technology did not, as you put it, fail catastrophically. It worked (on an old, purchased used, Shinohara press in the uncontrolled environment of a trade show no less). To become a viable product, it likely would have had to have a press manufacturer to step in to do some press development. Companies like Creo, do have limited financial resources available to develop technologies. It always comes down to a question of spending priorities vs market opportunity.

Whatever happened to the greater good of less=more and long term profit?

It's been my experience that a technology company's focus is on developing products that have a projected volume of sales sufficient to cover the costs of development, manufacturing, and going to market with the goal of returning a specified margin of profit. It has nothing to do with whether the product under consideration for development is the right product, or the best product to address the issue, or one that is best for the industry. Very few companies have the luxury of developing products for future potential profits since shareholders are usually looking for short-term return on investment.
Also, the market for truly innovative products in an industry as conservative as printing, is typically very small and may not be sufficient to allow a new product sufficient time to build a big enough customer base to survive the next round of product development priority setting. And it's not just the product that has to be developed, but the entire product marketing, training, service, and support systems have to also be in place. That's a big investment.

Just look at the reception that Erik's ink transfer blade has had over the years.

best, gordon p
My print blog here: Quality In Print
Current topic: Print in the internet age – a customer's perspective raises some questions

[gordo]

BTW there is a very good white paper about Miracle plates here:

http://miracle-plate.com/app/downloa...+July+2009.pdf

An interesting side note, they state: "In order to minimise the risk of over/under exposure a ‘top hat’ laser profile is preferred for exposure rather than a normal ‘gaussian’ beam profile."

and a link to the type of laser system they're employing

http://www.electrooptics.com/feature...feature_id=110

best, gordon p

[Hector Howson]

Having read the white paper from JPI it can be concluded that this plate is far from being "the most important technology breakthrough since the introduction of thermal CTP". The biggest breakthrough since inkjet CTP maybe.

A blank plate with a blank image that reverts to being a blank plate within hours and has a limited run length? The technology has some way to go but I wish them well.