Journey to Processless Plates

摘要

Needless to say processless plates are set to revolutionalise printing, there is not yet a plate that does not need any processing. That is why only two manufacturers have delivered processless or chemistry-free plates although many promised to do so. Others have announced commercial delivery late in 2004 or 2005. The future of CtP will not be determined by platesetters of the market, but by the offered plates. As much as platesetters did not show a new trend at drupa, the violet, thermal or UV-contact-plates did not show a new trend. The only visible trend was the way to processless plates. Processless originally means that a plate can be printed without any other process after imaging. It means that a printer does not have to invest into a processor, not to maintain it and does not have to spend money for buying chemistry and disposing it. But yet there is no plate that does not need any processing. Only those that are "developed" with the dampening solution in the offset press could claim to be really processless.