New requirements, new plate
cre art uses the new KODAK SONORA UV Process Free Plate, developed as the longest-run process free plate for printing with UV curable inks, for production with the highly reactive LEC UV inks. The company has been working with this newest addition to the KODAK SONORA Plate family as a beta tester since March 2016. However, process free plates have been firmly established at cre art for a while. The date is engraved in Torsten Gröger’s memory: “We switched to the SONORA XP Process Free Plate from a chemistry-free plate, which had to be treated with clean-out finisher after imaging, on May 26, 2014. We’ve been printing with process free plates without any problems ever since.”
Less process, more stability
He sums up what it is that makes SONORA Process Free Plates so attractive for cre art: “The main advantages for us are less process variables and more stability as well as easier handling. We wanted to cut out cleaning and maintenance of the wash unit and have no more clean-out finisher to dispose of. The process free plates obviously offer us substantial environmental and economic benefits because the chemicals, water, and electricity which are unavoidable with classic processing can now be dispensed with. We worked out that with our plate consumption we save about 6000 euros a year on energy, water, and disposal, as well as on cleaning and servicing the wash unit. However, what’s even more important for us is that the SONORA Plates take up less room in the prepress department. There quite simply isn’t any free space for a processor anymore near our CTP system.”
Speaking of CTP, cre art has a KODAK TRENDSETTER 800 II Quantum Platesetter with the Autoloader option for 50 thermal plates. Up to 700 plates per month are imaged on this CTP system, which uses KODAK SQUARESPOT Imaging Technology. Ninety percent of them are destined for the LEC UV press. The remainder are plates for a conventional five-color press with a coater in 36 x 52 cm sheet format, which is used for smaller jobs, business cards, stationery, and the inner sleeves of vinyl records. When it comes to screening, cre art uses a cross-modulated