Mitsubishi Eco 1630 vs Agfa Advantra 25 imagesetter for poly CTP

[DaveSuitePrint]

We are a small print shop wanting to upgrade to CTP and am considering these CTP options.

#1 - Mitsubishi Eco 1630 III silver digiplate system with capstan red laser imaging. It has a harlequin rip and is compact, uses little chemistry (eco friendly) and only has one poly plate supply roll.

#2 - Agfa Advantra 25 with online processor. This is a drum red laser imaging imagesetter. It has 2 supply rolls. It uses more chemistry from what I understand. The Agfa is reconditioned by Genesis Equipment in Phoenix and would have a new Harlequin rip.

The Agfa setup is about 1/2 the price of the Mitsubishi. $15K vx $30K

We will be using the plates for process color on a 3302 Ryobi and spot color on a Hamada landscape press that needs 15.5" wide plates.

Can a capstan platesetter create consistent plates for process color?

I would appreciate any input or recommendations.

Thank you, Dave Galle

 

[tschofield]

Re: Mitsubishi Eco 1630 vs Agfa Advantra 25 imagesetter for poly CTP

Dave,
Poly can meet your color needs and then some.
today, poly is able to go up to 175 lpi, 5-95% dot. and up to 25k impressions.
4/C work can be done as well. you should have no problem with a capstan device for what you want to do.

There are other choices in the Poly world besides the 2 you are looking at.
As for chemistry the Advantra will use a lot more chemistry then the eco.

 

[Bob Hill]

Re: Mitsubishi Eco 1630 vs Agfa Advantra 25 imagesetter for poly CTP

I believe there is another issue when using the Avantra as a poly platesetter and that is one of how the plates are trimmed. I believe the AV25 will have a leader on one plate out of the separation when a file is imaged if the files are sent one at a time. So you wind up with three paltes of one length and one plate of a longer length. The other question would be the accuracy in general of plate to plate registration relative to the gripper edge of the poly plate. I'm sure registration accuracy is fine, but where the image falls on the plate might be an issue.

As far as quality of poly on a capstan versus drum, the Mitsi device will very accurately register and produce adequate color for the "pleasing color" account. Most implemetations of poly are decided by the willingness of the pressroom to adapt to poly from metal, not whether the plates were imaged on a drum or a capstan device.

 

[Tommy B]

Re: Mitsubishi Eco 1630 vs Agfa Advantra 25 imagesetter for poly CTP

Bob Hill is exactly right. The benefit of the Eco is it's ability to cut the plate to the correct length. The other features are that the with Eco you can switch rolls much more quickly ( no cassette like in the avantra) it can produce 175lpi and is very fast. Another consideration is that you do not have to buy a processor, and maintainence is much less than a normal polyester plate processor. The Eco processor does not have tanks, it utilizes a spray bar and squegee system and uses far less chemistry than a conventionail processor. Also service issues are very low on the Eco as opposed to the Avatra.
Have your vendor prepare a ROI fro a 5 year period comparing chemistry usage, maintainence time, and trimming time an you will see that it will make up the price difference easily.

I have sold a lot of these units and no has ever been disappointed.