Waterless plate and Thermal Plate

[Nathalie Nguyen]

Dear All:
Could anyone help me clarify something:
- Waterless plate with thermal plate.
- Digital plate with thermal plate.
Thanks!

 

[DaveE]

Thermal refers to the laser imaging method. Thermal uses heat as opposed to colored light (helium-neon or argon ion)to form the image.
Waterless plate means no water required for the image to be processed on the printing plate. The unexposed coating is removed by another method.
All thermal plates and all other laser-imaged plates are driven by digital image processing and can be described as digital plates.
If you are referring to the plate within a digital press, that is a plate that is rendered on each revolution of the print drum, inked, used for printing, and electrically neutralized before the next revolution. So that kind of digital plate has a short memory span.

 

[erictoray]

Thermal plates are as DaveE explained are imaged with a thermal laser typically in the 830 NM range and are considered "digital plates" because they are imaged via a digital or electronic device (CTP imagers). Heat will be used to expose either the image in a negative working plate or the background for a positive working plate. Waterless plates are plates that do not use water for dampening on press. Toray is the leading manufacturer of waterless plates for non DI applications, and can be used on any press providing they are equipped with a temperature control system on the inking rollers. Non process plates do not use developers or finishers (gums) in a processor, but the utilize either a smaller wash out unit or even the dampeners on the press to remove the unexposed coatings. There are various opinions regarding how well these plates perform, but we won't go there. I hope that this information will help you.

Regards,
Eric Friedman
No. American Sales Manager; Waterless Products
Toray International America, Inc.
Toray Waterless Printing (North America)

 

[Nathalie Nguyen]

Thermal plates are as DaveE explained are imaged with a thermal laser typically in the 830 NM range and are considered "digital plates" because they are imaged via a digital or electronic device (CTP imagers). Heat will be used to expose either the image in a negative working plate or the background for a positive working plate. Waterless plates are plates that do not use water for dampening on press. Toray is the leading manufacturer of waterless plates for non DI applications, and can be used on any press providing they are equipped with a temperature control system on the inking rollers. Non process plates do not use developers or finishers (gums) in a processor, but the utilize either a smaller wash out unit or even the dampeners on the press to remove the unexposed coatings. There are various opinions regarding how well these plates perform, but we won't go there. I hope that this information will help you.

Regards,
Eric Friedman
No. American Sales Manager; Waterless Products
Toray International America, Inc.
Toray Waterless Printing (North America)

Thank you Eric for your information.
So it means waterless plate still use developer but not use dampening system?
Waterless plate is rather new for our market so that we don't know which is better thermal negative plate or waterless plate for friendly environment.