CTP & Polymer Plates.

[JAMESRW]

Please share your experiences with innovation and equipment for quickly creating polymer plates (ie: eliminating cameras and film).

 

[rich apollo]

I've only worked with CTP onto metal plates. In each situation where we moved from film there has been regret...that we waited so long. It's always been a good move. There is a small learning curve, but it's not bad.

 

[Oceanic]

I used polyester plates for about 10 years at my last workplace. Worked great. We used Mitsubishi 8 mil plates on a Mitsubishi SDP-Eco 1630II, which is a good machine and uses little chemistry. We had a Panther before that, and a Linotype before that (and used 3M plates). It's the way to go for small printers, in my opinion. Occasionally, there would be some stretch, but the Mitsu plate material was pretty stable. The pressman could output another plate in 2-3 minutes, if necessary.

In my new position, we go CTP to aluminum plates. Fast-paced environment and go through a huge amount of them, but all is recycled. The RIPs are very similar, but we are stochastic here.

 

[BillJ]

The Eco1630 is still made (currently version IIIR) and is a very good machine. It's easy to operate and maintain. If you are looking for a used model stay with a version II or later.