Best CTP for small printing company

G

Gigit

New member
We are a small printing company that mainly does 2 color work on a Printmaster QM 46 - 2 color. 13" x 18" plates. We are looking for a CTP systems that is economical. Currently we are outputting film, and stripping it up the "Old Fashiond Way". We have been looking into 2 systems the JetPlate and the PlateWriter 2000 by Glunz & Jensen.

My question does anyone out there have these two systems, the pros and cons. Or are there any other systems that we are overlooking that would suite out company?
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

Have you considered the Mitsubishi ECO poly plate machine? It is a nice way to make plates and be green also. The plates are available from many sources so that eliminates any hassles of being a slave to the razor and blade people and companies such as P$$$$teak.
Proprietary service and supplies is not a smarter way to print!
Regards,
OG
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

*The G&J System is not ready for prime time.... Dont waste your time with it. The jetPlate has been around for a number of years, I know of a few people in GA that own one. They seem to like it. I was actually considering ordering some sample plates from their website. I guess this would be a good place to start. the site is www.jetplate.com. The plates are free to try. I would do that before I even considered it.*

*The ECO system is good but poly isnt what I would be interested in.*
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

A client of mine last year got in an Xante/Ripit system (VM2). It will make a 20.88 x 19.88 metal plate. I admit that i was skeptical but found this small violet laser platesetter to be up to the job. The main drawback that I've had with it is that the Symphony RIP is very limited in its ability to do imposition. It will do it and has a lot of good features, but is certainly not as full-featured as a separate imposition program.

Having said that, the RIP is a full APPE (Adobe PDF Print Engine) RIP and can handle all the transparency issues that modern software can throw at it. For a low-end solution, I've found it to fill the bill.
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

What line screen are you printing at. A CTP system for a small shop I would definintely avoid violet and thermal the cost of the system and chemistry would kill you. You should look at both the jetplate and the Eco system. It reallly depends on how many plates you need to image. The other consideration is chemistry usage. The Eco is a great machine that uses very little chemestry and clean up is very quick and very well made machine, where Jetplate does have a full blown processor. Also depends on your pressman and wheter they know or like polyester or metal. Both systems produce very good plates.

Tom
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

We have been using plastic plates for 17 years, initially with a Mitsubishi Silvermaster machine, with an Eskofot DPX Genesis rig for the last six.
I don't know where you are but we're in UK and Apex are the agents. They are a good supplier and the machine is very reliable (famous last words). The standard resolution is fine and the plates behave well on our QM46-2.
One correspondent recommended a Mitsubishi machine and I did look at one when we were in danger of putting in a 52cm press which would have necessitated replacing the old DPX Genesis due to the plate roll width. It looked good but despite our having travelled for 2 hours to see it, the agents hadn't got it working. Don't buy from agents in Perivale...
Our experience with the DPX Genesis is very good and in this era of 52cm format domination, there are some excellent reconditioned machines to be had; this could save you a packet.
Make sure you get a good RIP, one that will relate easily to your existing system, and keep it updated. We use Highwater, which is good, but we have a Creo Scitex RIP on our Xerox machine and that's mustard.
You'll enjoy CTP and will probably wonder how you ever operated without it.
Regards
Nick
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

I realize I am bit late on this thread, but please take a look at the line of CtP from ECRM. Our equipment is value priced, easy to use, and uses *very* little power, about the same power to light 3 -100 watt light bulbs!

With Chem-free Violet coming on strong, our machines are ready to support this technology. As a person who understands CtP, and who worked on Agfa CtP in the early days, I can say that our products are well made and a perfect fit for the small to medium sized printer like you.

Also check out WorkMates, our PDF workflow.

Or contact me offline, or our web site to find a dealer near you.

Mike Mierjeski
Software Business Manager
ECRM Imaging Systems
www.ecrm.com
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

Hi Gidjit,

Are you located in the U.S.? Heidelberg USA has several solutions for QM 46 press. Our Quicksetter 300 polyester CtP is the most economical we have and is actually tailored exactly for your press. We have bundled many together with the QM 46 as a turnkey solution. We also offer two metal 2 up CtP, the violet Prosetter 52 and the Suprasetter A52, both will image QM 46 plates and even larger. Both can be upgrade to a 4 up press if the need ever arises. If you have any questions, please let me know. I can have a rep contact you for further analysis as to what would be the best fit for your needs. If you would like me to, please private mail me your contact information. Here is a link to info on the CtP:

[Heidelberg CtP|http://www.us.heidelberg.com/www/html/en/content/overview1/products/prepress_overview]

.Regards,

Mark Tonkovich
Heidelberg USA
Product Manager, CtP & Proofing
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

You should talk with owners of the Epson based systems before buying, they do work but there are issues you must be aware of.

I would recommend Polyester plates, a DPX or Printware system. Also you can go with a COBALT 4 for Violet metal, we offer new or used, very affordable, very reliable... and I know, all the negatives on Cobalts, but I have sold a lot and love the machines and so do my customers. There were problems in the past when Escher Grad went to the 60 mW diode but that was resolved long ago.

Thermal is of course good to but the systems are more expensive and so is the maintanence, that technology is more for the larger printer.
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

Mike -

Good to "hear" from you.

Chem-Free violet is indeed coming-on strong -
I even had a dream about it last night! We will
be showing Azura V at Drupa. This would be
a good fit for small printers.

Now, in regards to your products ony requiring
enough enery for 3 100 watt bulbs... what about
100 3-watt bulbs? (smile)

Regards,
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

The PlateStream 46 from Printware would be the perfect CTP device for your application. No device offers a more consistent output at a lower cost per plate. Here is a previous post regarding the PlateStream from this very forum.

11-09-2007, 01:17 PM

PrintsWilliam
Junior Member

"We were in the same boat with you about 6 years ago. We went all out and bought a Printware and we've never looked back. We chose it because its a well built machine - we've only replaced one part on it in the last 6 years. We get good customer support as well. We use for our Heidelberg Quickmasters and GTO that also runs off of a Harlequin RIP. It's a polyester plate machine that can get up to about 40,000 impressions before image breakdown. Also, it can produce up to about 40 plates an hour.

We've been very happy with it."

Let us know if we can help.

Bill Frederick
Printware
St. Paul, MN
800-456-1400 ext 418
www.printwarellc.com
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

Definitive,

Mako 2 or 4 is your machine, small footprint, saml electrical power

Creo, Magnus , need Air and hi electrical power
Agfa Polaris ans Aceno is same need Air and hi electrical power

ECRM use very low elecgtrical power and new equipment are equiped with 120mw laser ready for new tecnology procesles Violet, and old have 60mw laser work with silver and photopolimeric plates, with the laser to max maybe can expose precessles plates in the future.

And Ctserver of Mako series let use any workflow, one good solution for you can be Preps with some Harlequin One Bit TIF RIP, or StudioRIP One Bit tif output, bot combination are fine for you.

Best Regard
 
Re: Best CTP for small printing company

Screen has good solutions for each application. we used PT-R4100. It works so good for us. But depends your pocket, your costumers and your vision. maybe save money now could be lost tomorrow.

Carlos
 
Printware - A stand up company!

Printware - A stand up company!

PolyLowTCO said:
The PlateStream 46 from Printware would be the perfect CTP device for your application. No device offers a more consistent output at a lower cost per plate. Here is a previous post regarding the PlateStream from this very forum.

11-09-2007, 01:17 PM

PrintsWilliam
Junior Member

"We were in the same boat with you about 6 years ago. We went all out and bought a Printware and we've never looked back. We chose it because its a well built machine - we've only replaced one part on it in the last 6 years. We get good customer support as well. We use for our Heidelberg Quickmasters and GTO that also runs off of a Harlequin RIP. It's a polyester plate machine that can get up to about 40,000 impressions before image breakdown. Also, it can produce up to about 40 plates an hour.

We've been very happy with it."

Let us know if we can help.

Bill Frederick
Printware
St. Paul, MN
800-456-1400 ext 418
Printware, LLC
Click to expand...


I agree this system is very good. I would stand behind printware.​
 
I would stay away from JetPLate - For these main reasons - Bad Support, and Trouble with Cartridges which are only supplied by JetPlate.
No returns, and you must use Kodak's Craftsman Plates only.
 
Just a note, doesn't really have with the CTP or the plates, but related to the workflow built around CTP at a small company. We were two companies investing in CTP around the same time, the other company invested in a hand-fed capstan, we invested in an Accento and Azura. Being small they still need to manually feed plates wich means one operator is tied to the plate making. We have two cassettes (two plate formats and manually need to remove slipsheets, at loading time) but it does mean we can image 30-50 plates with operator being involved in other tasks. So do look into getting semi automatic feeding.
So being too low in costs can mean you tie up staff, wich may be more expensive in the long run.
 
marktonk said:
Heidelberg USA has several solutions for QM 46 press. Our Quicksetter 300 polyester CtP is the most economical.
Click to expand...

I've used the Heidelberg Quicksetter 300 and it is a killer solution for the QM46. Near metal quality without the expense (we ran it at 2400dpi 175lpi) The Heidelberg version of this machine has the added advantage of the MetaDimension RIP (which just does not fail or choke....ever). Both Heidelberg and Xante sell the same device with the Xante product marketed as the Speedsetter. It requires absolutely minimum maintenance. It is so simple to load and clean that we just had our press operators maintain it and release their own plates. Prepress never even had to bother with it other than to drop PDFs from their desktops into a hotfolder for it to output from.
 
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