Uv plates discontinued

[ctptech]

I’ve Just been told that Kodak ,Fuji and Agfa will be discontinuing UV plates by the end of the year and already my supplier struggling to supply B2 size Fuji plates. A plate dealer here in the uk said it may be possible to convert the Agfa Palladio 2055 to thermal by changing the laser . Most of the units I sevice have 60mw diodes . Has anyone heard of a thermal diode kit for these machines or a alternative plate. Another thought I had was if crons Blackwood plates could be used if the processor was modified . Has any of you guys had any experience on this?

 

[Grafeas]

Does this apply to the AGFA Azura VI (Violet) plates as well?

 

[Dario]

I’ve Just been told

...by who?

 

[Martin Mueller]

The news about the supposed end of UV printing plates at the end of the year is hard to believe. I would imagine it doesn't apply to CTcP plates. The Chinese are very strong in this market segment and will continue to try to secure world market shares. It's not a pity about the older UV plate types, because there haven't been any new CtP platesetter models for them for a long time. But well, let's see what will happen until the end of the year.

 

[maxon]

I reckon you meant violet plates since you refer to Palladio. This Agfa ctp was indeed based on the 2055 platerite but cannot be retrofitted with an infrared laser instead of the 405 nm visible wavelength laser diode such an advice is unprofessional.

 

[ctptech]

Cron are still selling the violet ctps but it was a Palladio customer who couldn’t get plates for his Ryobi 680 so I was called in to scrap the perfectly working machine so he could install a 4300 . Yesterday I went to install a 2055 which was bought privately and he was told by 3 plate suppliers that the end of the year is probably the last batch . The dealers I spoke to couldn’t get any Fuji plates but the dealer said this was due to Fuji not been able to take on any new customers due to the aluminium shortage . Print week did say “Agfa Graphics has signed a deal with Chinese plate manufacturer Lucky HuaGuang Graphics to produce plates, initially for the Chinese market.” So there maybe a possible lifeline . There are a lot of older platesetters here in the uk and like Martin said china maybe the answer .

 

[Martin Mueller]

@ctptech
Hi Darren,

Lucky Huaguang has a European subsidiary in Willich near Düsseldorf. Please contact the managing director Mr. Yong Zheng. He is a friendly guy. He may also be selling the older type of UV plates (e.g. UV-PH with sensitivity: 40 - 55 mJ) in the U.K.

Huaguang Germany

hgfilm.de

 

[Martin Mueller]

Hi Darren,

you are completely right with the end of UV plates. Agfa wants to sell the whole offset plate business to another company. The Belgian newspaper DeTijd wrote about it some days ago:

Agfa wil drukplatendivisie verkopen

Agfa heeft plannen om de divisie drukplaten te verkopen. De divisie is momenteel goed voor 748 miljoen omzet, 43 procent van de totale omzet.

printmatters.nl

 

[ctptech]

Thankyou Martin that’s great news I’ll make some enquiries

 

[Hagar_uk]

I’ve Just been told that Kodak ,Fuji and Agfa will be discontinuing UV plates by the end of the year and already my supplier struggling to supply B2 size Fuji plates. A plate dealer here in the uk said it may be possible to convert the Agfa Palladio 2055 to thermal by changing the laser . Most of the units I sevice have 60mw diodes . Has anyone heard of a thermal diode kit for these machines or a alternative plate. Another thought I had was if crons Blackwood plates could be used if the processor was modified . Has any of you guys had any experience on this?

I think the plates that you are referring to is 405nm violet based plates. And you are right they are going, there are some for non UV inks which last a tad longer, but from what I have herd those do not have a long life.

There is no way a 2055 can be converted to run thermal plates. In the past some of the older palladio and some highwater kit had laser upgrades to go from silver plates to photo polyemer, but that was same wave length just small increase in power. Thermal plates are another kettle of fish.
Also going to UV plates is probably a no no, from what I recall back 10 years a go, UV plates would require a different lase with light frequency and a lot more power and hence more driver electronics and that's before even looking at the optics.

 

[ctptech]

Didn’t think it was possible . Customer still convinced his supplier can do this. Like you i remember we converted most 2055 from 5mw lap v to 60 mw pro v . This was at apex when they paired up with Fuji but the thermal would melt the plastic correction lense i recon.

 

[maxon]

Correct. Violet photopolymer plates require 35-55 microJoules/sqcm, that's less than 60 microwatts reading on a laser power meter right above the plate emulsion. Some digital UV plates are sensitive to UV up to and including visible domain 400-405 nm but they need 50-60 mJ/sqcm we're talking about a 1000 fold increase in exposure. There is no way you can modify any violet platesetter to put 50 mJ in the focal plane.