CTP Plate's Agfa Performance Features

Since the development of CTP today, there is still no single product that can meet the needs of all customers. The most sensible approach is to analyze the actual needs of the customer before purchasing CTP products, that is, to consider the type of print (commercial, packaging or newspaper). , quality positioning, use cost, output, etc., then select the CTP type. The purpose of Agfa's products is to tailor the most suitable CTP products for users. As we all know, Agfa has various types of CTP equipment and CTP plates, and has won the market with exquisite technology, reasonable prices, complete varieties, and comprehensive services.

Here, we would like to give you a comprehensive introduction to the Agfa CTP plate series: 1. Lithostar Ultra (silver salt version) 2. N91 and N91V (photopolymerization) 3. Thermostar 4. Mistral (free rinse thermal plate) 5. Azura (Flush-free non-ablative thermal negative plate) 6. Thermolite (Directly used in printing presses, rinse-free non-ablative thermal plates) 7. Setprint (Silver Salt Polyester Edition)

For the current domestic CTP market, there are mainly three types of plates: silver salt plates, photopolymer plates, and thermal plates. The following is a detailed description of the characteristics of these media, customers should consider according to their own printing business characteristics, which type of media to consider, and then select the CTP machine to match this plate.

1. Silver Salt Edition

The silver salt version is one of the photosensitive plates. Agfa has three versions of Silver Salt: Purple LAP-V, Red LAP-R, and Green LAP-O. Their print rates are the same, up to 350,000 prints. Among them, violet laser is the most advanced photosensitive technology. The entire CTP system (including: CTP equipment and its use) has the lowest cost of ownership and the most economical use, and is one of the mainstream products of the global CTP.

Silver salt version can adapt to almost all printing syrups, such as: car wash water, fountain solution (alcohol and non-alcoholic), cleaning solution and so on. The biggest advantage of the silver salt version is that the photospeed is particularly fast. From the above table, you can see that the silver salt version requires the lowest light energy. It is the fastest in all CTP versions. Taking the newspaper industry as an example, an average of 350 sheets per hour can be produced, which is beyond the reach of the thermal plates. Due to its ultra-high speed, the laser power of silver salt version CTP is only 5-30 mW, which greatly improves the service life of the laser and reduces the cost of use.
At the same time, the silver salt version is also very suitable for high-quality commercial printing, with Agfa Sublima can output up to 340lpi.

However, the silver salt version can not be baked, using UV ink can only print 50,000 prints.

2. Poly Edition

Photopolymer plates are another type of photosensitive plate. Agfa has two photopolymer versions: N91 and N91V, both of which are negative graphic plates. The N91 is green and N91V is violet. Because they are photopolymerized negative plate, the film is very hard after exposure, and the printing rate is higher than that of ordinary positive plate type. It is suitable for printing of UV ink, but its resolution is lower than that of silver salt plate.
It is suitable for printing in the newspaper industry, general business and packaging industry.

3. Thermal plate

Agfa has two thermal versions: P970 (830nm) and P971 (1064nm). Thermal and photosensitive plates each have different advantages. The advantage of the thermal plate is that it can be baked. After the plate is baked, it can be used for UV inks and light-proof inks. In the case of unbaked plates, the ink-resistant printing rate is 150,000. Another advantage of the thermal plate is its high resolution, allowing it to print high-quality prints. In combination with Agfa Sublima, it can print 340 lpi.

Thermal plates on the market, including Agfa and other brands of thermal plates, have greater exposure latitude. This is yet another advantage of the thermal plate, but it is not a so-called "binary" plate - non-zero. That is, one. All the thermal plates will have underexposure and overexposure. The exposure and development parameters must also be precisely controlled. Agfa has sophisticated digital control strips that can be placed on each side of the plate and can be used at any time. Identify exposure and development values ​​for each plate. In order to achieve consistent, high-quality output.

Here, we only briefly introduce some of the digital control strips. Each circle is composed of different pixels: 1x1, 2x2, 3x3... The smaller the pixels, the more sensitive the exposure and processing conditions are. For this reason, it is convenient for us to judge with the naked eye.

This control bar is very popular with customers. (There are other functions, not described here)

In addition, when the thermal plate is not baked, it is sensitive to the printing solution. Generally, the amount of alcohol in the fountain solution cannot be too high. It is recommended not to exceed 10%, otherwise it may affect the printing rate. If the thermal plate is baked, there is no need to inflict damage on the printing solution.

True thermal plates, such as: Agfa's Thermostar, are not afraid of any indoor light. Before exposure, they can be placed in the room for a long period of time without any influence.

According to the above characteristics of the thermal plate, it is very suitable for commercial and packaging printing, especially for the printing of packages with large printing volume and often using UV ink.

4. Ablation no-clean thermal plate

Agfa Mistral is an ablative, no-rinse heat-sensitive version. Common ablative printing plates can only be used for short-run printing, but Mistral can achieve 400,000 impressions without roasting. After the powder coating layer of the grain part is sucked into the filter, no medicine is discharged and it is very environmentally friendly. There is no medicine consumption, but it needs to replace the filter within a certain amount. The cost of the filter and the cost of the medicine are similar.

5. Ablation chemical-free thermal print

Azura is Agfa's new flush-free thermal version (exactly chemical-free flush) at Drupa this year. It is developed in response to the customer's environmental and reliability requirements. For 100,000 (not baked version), after the Azura plate is imaged, only one layer of glue is needed to remove the film from the non-image area. Due to the elimination of the chemical flushing, Azura has a very wide exposure latitude and quality stability.

6. Wash-free non-ablative thermal plate

This type of plate can be used directly in printing presses, and Agfa's Thermolite can be used with printers with special functions, that is, printing machines need exposure devices. Thermolite aluminum plate is placed on the printing cylinder for image scanning, and the water roller then takes away the non-image portion of the film and can be printed.

7. Silver salt polyester plate

Agfa's Setprint, which is a kind of polyester CTP, can directly output printing plates by using a laser imagesetter, eliminating the need for dedicated CTP equipment, and thus lowering the cost of use. Because the plate base is a polyester film, its printing durability is low; the retractable coefficient of the polyester film is large, and the four colors are not easy to register in a large format, so it is not suitable for large-format four-color printing, and its highest network line is 175lpi.

Setprint is ideal for monochrome or two-color printing and small format four-color printing.

Agfa can provide so many CTP plates, and there is definitely one that can fit your printing business requirements. The following illustration is a summary.

In addition, Agfa's products have always been open, it not only applies to Agfa CTP equipment, but also to other brands of CTP equipment, in China we have many application examples. The following table shows the application of the Agfa P970 Thermal Plate on other brands of CTP. In actual use, we noticed that Agfa's CTP plate has higher sensitivity than other brands, which can significantly increase the exposure speed of CTP, thereby increasing plate production.