The advantages and disadvantages of CTcP plate making technology

CTcP technology advantages

CTcP has many advantages. The most obvious is to increase production efficiency, save time and reduce production costs. However, CTcP in the end can reflect the degree of advantage, but also with the printing company's mastery of digital technology. From traditional plate-making to computer-based plate making, there are many important influencing factors in terms of time and cost.

1. Significant economic efficiency

a) Simplified process flow. The CTcP system has reduced the process of film, printing and other processes in the traditional process, saving consumables and related costs.

b) Use a traditional PS plate. In various CTP systems, a special CTP plate is inevitably needed, which is very expensive. The plates used in CTcP platemaking are inexpensive conventional printing plates, which are the general PS plates used in the current process. Compared with other CTP technologies, the CTcP system has a large price advantage due to the use of traditional PS plates, developing machines, and potions, enabling low-cost operation of production.

c) The equipment is simple. The CTcP system uses a UV-sensitized plate, so it can be easily operated under bright room conditions, and companies can introduce the system without changing other operating environments before printing. Its light source uses UV lamps, its life has been increased to 2500 hours, and the price is less than 1/10 of the laser light source, so the cost of operation and maintenance of the equipment is very low.

2. No need to output film, improve printing quality

The CTcP system inherits the advantages of the CTP system - it is not necessary to export the film, and it is also possible to implement computer-to-platemaking. In this way, film materials and processing materials can be saved, saving manual imposition time. Many users who use CTcP have working experience in film printing. After the film is not needed, the print quality of the printed matter is significantly improved because the images and dots are not affected by the quality degradation in the traditional prepress process. After the printing plate, the quality is better, because the dust, scratches and other factors on the film no longer exist, and the positioning is more accurate. In short, the network points obtained by the CTcP plate making technology are the first-generation network points that are directly transmitted to the printing plate, and their edges are clean and sharp, faithful to original manuscripts.

3. Quick and stable integration into traditional platemaking processes

Since the CTcP system is still using ordinary PS plates that are familiar to printing companies, producers can continue to use the various chemical liquids, developing equipment and punching devices in the original platemaking process to undoubtedly achieve a good plate-making system. Compatible with the printing press. Printing companies do not have to worry about the problems caused by the change in printability, but they do not need to spend a lot of time and energy to complete the matching of the printing plate and the press. The CTcP technology not only simplifies the existing lengthy process flow, but also retains the traditional operating habits and printability to the maximum extent, providing the best way to complete production tasks stably and efficiently.

In connection with other prepress systems, CTcP also has its own unique features. All UV-Setter CTcP platesetters have an open 1-BitTiff interface. No matter what device or workflow the output file is in the 1-BitTiff format, it works perfectly with the CTcP platesetter. For printers, this means that operators can quickly and easily implement digital process without additional investment. In addition, simple equipment and open workflows have more advantages for future maintenance and upgrades.

4. Reduce print debugging time and material loss

Since no plate orientation is required, the quality of the plate is better, and it is not necessary to re-plate because of inaccurate positioning, and it takes a lot of time to print on the machine. With more and more short-lived prints in the entire printing industry, change-overs and on-machine debugging have become regular tasks. Reduce print debugging time, can obviously save time and cost. The CTcP plate making is more accurate than the traditional analog plate making, so the waste of consumables such as water, paper, and ink is reduced when the machine is commissioned.

5. Simple operation

All UV materials (printing plates or proofing materials) can be operated in the bright room, while the blue-violet laser needs to operate in the dark room, weak light or yellow light source environment, can easily print out the various specifications of the size of India Versions can also handle multiple plates at the same time, allowing multiple exposures on the same plate.

6. Printing customers are more satisfied

The printing customers are more satisfied with the quality of the printed matter and the printing production time is shorter. This means that the delivery is more timely and reduces the operating costs of the factory, so that the printing company can take the initiative in the fierce market competition.

7.Advantages of UV light plate making

Exposure with a UV light source of 360 to 450 nm means that a conventional PS plate can be used in the direct plate making process. This is a printing plate that has been used by printers for many years and is familiar with its performance and processing procedures. The technology is mature, and the PS plate is more heat-sensitive. CTP plates and violet laser plates are cheaper, and PS plates are the most used printing plates in the printing industry worldwide. There is no need to train printers because they already know the performance of this plate.

Fourth, the current CTcP technology deficiencies

Of course, the CTcP platemaking system also has its shortcomings that cannot be ignored. Although the CTcP platemaking system can implement computer-to-plate directly on the ordinary PS plate, due to the generally low sensitivity of the ordinary PS plate, the plate making speed is not satisfactory. To cope with the promotion of the CTcP system, Agfa, Fuji, Kodak and other companies have successively introduced a series of higher-sensitivity plates to make the CTcP plate-making speed approach that of the thermal CTP plate-making speed.

However, to make CTcP more competitive, the speed of plate making needs to be further improved. In addition, DMD is the core component of the plate making machine. In order to improve the resolution, the micro lens has increased from the initial 300,000 to 800,000 to the current 1.3 million. It can be seen that the DMD is a very precise component, which gives it daily maintenance and maintenance. Bring some difficulties. Any failure of a micro lens will affect the imaging effect to some extent. Once the DMD has a big problem, it needs to be replaced, which not only affects the normal operation of the machine, but also costs a lot.