processless ...or not?

[Dario]

I'd like to know which kind of ctp plates are used by the world - processless or not?
Then if you also want to leave a comment about brand, the "why", pros&cons, etc...
Press operators all welcome!

 

[Dario]

We use the 'old' ones because of the press operators.
They were not OK with the contamination of their fountain solution, and also they didn't like the increased 'sensitivity' of the new kind, so they decided to stick with the 'standard' ones.

 

[jimas67]

I use the "old" ones, my mind cannot wrap around a processless plate!! The coating that comes off has to do contamination to your water system a lot faster than normal!! I've had a few sales people try and to convince me otherwise, but nope!!

 

[Magnus59]

We did a couple of trials of Kodak's first processless offering and with the first generation of Sonora, press operators had issues with them, those issues have been discussed at length in another thread on here.
We went back to Trillian, then to Electra, both wet process plates.
When the new Sonora X were released, we conducted another trial and had much more positive results, there is much less residue from the emulsion, and this is transferred to the first few press sheets. We are now fully committed to Sonora X as our processor has been decommissioned and sent to the scrap metal dealers, we will be moving to Sonora Xtra when they are rolled out.

 

[ReproElectroProspero]

My shop recently switched to JetSet Polyester plates and we hate them.

They are easy plates to print and cure, but actually using them is a pain in the butt. They intermittently wash out and need to be reprinted, no matter what we do. We follow the directions to a T and they just...don't work...half the time. When they work though, they're great.

 

[Dario]

We did a couple of trials of Kodak's first processless offering and with the first generation of Sonora, press operators had issues with them, those issues have been discussed at length in another thread on here.
We went back to Trillian, then to Electra, both wet process plates.
When the new Sonora X were released, we conducted another trial and had much more positive results, there is much less residue from the emulsion, and this is transferred to the first few press sheets. We are now fully committed to Sonora X as our processor has been decommissioned and sent to the scrap metal dealers, we will be moving to Sonora Xtra when they are rolled out.

Pardon me for being too nosy: how big is your shop? Or: how many plates (and how much gib) do you produce in a week or month?

 

[Dario]

I use the "old" ones, my mind cannot wrap around a processless plate!! The coating that comes off has to do contamination to your water system a lot faster than normal!! I've had a few sales people try and to convince me otherwise, but nope!!

Are you a press operator? Or what else?

 

[Magnus59]

Pardon me for being too nosy: how big is your shop? Or: how many plates (and how much gib) do you produce in a week or month?

We are a "medium" size shop, when we did the first trials of Kodak's first process free plate, we had a 4 colour Speedmaster SM74, a 5 colour Speedmaster SM74 with coater and a 4 colour Ryobi 52. We were exposing about 30,000 plates annually, average of 2500/month. We now have an 8 colour Speedmaster 74, all other machines in our shop are now digital (Indigo and Ricoh)
Our plate volumes are now approximately 15,000 per year, averaging 1250 per month.

 

[jimas67]

Are you a press operator? Or what else?

Yes, I am a press operator. Right now I operate a KBA Performa 74 4 color. I also run small 2 color presses and I’m experienced in large format as well.

 

[ChrisZ]

My customers, with low plates volumes use processless.
1000m^2 and more per month stick to conventional.