New Plates Top News From HOT Waterless Forum

Over 200 people, including 37 from outside North America, gathered at the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago the evening of September 4th 1997, eager for news of advancements in waterless technology. They weren’t disappointed. Here are some of the highlights:

HOT Plates

Polychrome announced its Quantum NAW, a negative working non-ablative thermal waterless plate that reportedly images almost five times faster than any rival technologies. Good for over 100,000 impressions, it images at only 120 millijoules of energy, compared to much higher energy requirements of its competition (900 millijoules). The plates are constructed with an aluminum base, a thermal sensitive cross-link polymer layer, and topped with Polychrome’s proprietary silicon overcoat to repel ink from the non image areas of the plate. Available for beta early next year with 830 nm sensitivity,

Polychrome expects to release a 1064 nm version during the first quarter of 1998. The current resolution capability of 200 lpi is also expected to increase with further development. Polychrome also has plans for a positive and negative analog waterless plate. Same processor, same chemistry, same speed and temperature for both digital and analog. Resolution will be comparable to Toray analog and Presstek digital. All plate sizes up to 52". More good news: the Quantum NAW is rumored to be about 30% less expensive than either Toray’s analog plate or Presstek’s PearlDry. Digitek, a new player in the market, began testing plate material last December. Plates were produced in quantity this past April and were in beta at the end of July. Another beta test is set to begin this month. Digitek hopes to have a commercially available plate by end of this year. The metal-based plate has been tested on Heidelberg’s Quickmaster-DI and GTO-DI.

Kodak is working on a truly processless thermal plate that can be imaged on press or off, for either conventional wet or waterless printing. Test plates have 830nm sensitivity and are capable of holding a 10 micron spot. By the time it’s released it will also be capable of imaging at 1064nm. Projected availability is 1998/99. Kodak is not targeting the long-run market and has no intention of introducing an analog waterless plate.

Presstek is working on a cleaning solution that will enable a full 300 lpi resolution on PearlDry plates by the end of the year.

HOT Webs

New member R. R. Donnelley & Sons, the largest commercial and publication printer in North America, confirmed its commitment to waterless printing by projecting that 50% of its print volume company-wide would be waterless within five years. Donnelley has been running waterless for three years on an M-90 cover press in its Mendota, IL facility, and recently concluded a three-month trial on lightweight coated #5 papers on an M-300 8-unit double web press in the same plant.

After addressing some ink and temperature issues, Donnelley will proceed with further trials at Mendota, probably after the first of the year. As announced at our December 1996 event, Donnelley is working toward converting the Mendota plant to 100% waterless. And how’s this for productivity: makereadies on the M-90 press have been as low as 56 impressions. Restarts are at 25 - 30 impressions.

Donnelley will now turn its waterless efforts to its new book plant in Roanoke, VA, which has four M-600’s, all waterless capable. Average run length in Roanoke is 8,000 impressions . From completion of one 32-page 4C job to pulling up on the next job can be as little as six minutes.

If waterless works in Roanoke, Donnelley insists they won’t go back to dampening. Donnelley is convinced waterless works, they’re just working on its implementation.

HOT New DI

Karat Digital Press Company (Scitex/KBA-Planeta) shared some of the secrets of its 74 Karat digital waterless offset press. The Gravuflow inking system offers keyless, self-calibrating inking, with only two rollers from ink tray to printing cylinder: a ceramic pitted roller with a doctor blade, which transfers ink to the form roller. Plate cylinder is two-around, serving two colors at a time. Ink is transferred to the plate in precisely the same location each revolution. Each color has separate temperature control. 10,000 sheets/hour. Use PearlDry plates and are very happy with the results. Of the 11 press highlights listed in Karat’s marketing brochure, guess what’s listed first: waterless offset.

HOT Proofs

Creo Products is already familiar with digital halftone proofing, having built the engines in Screen’s TrueRite proofers for the last four years. Creo’s own proofing capabilities extend to imaging proofing materials from Imation, Kodak, Fuji and Konica. Creo believes these materials will support up to 300 lpi. Recently announced two stand-alone proofing units. DuPont announced Dylux material for Trendsetter.

Imation discussed its Matchprint Laser Proof, a negative acting halftone dry thermal proof which can be imaged in Presstek’s Pearlhdp and Creo’s Trendsetter Spectrum, using a common RIP. Uses pigment-based colorants and proofs on a variety of stocks or Matchprint bases. Six of Matchprint’s standard custom colors will be available after the first of the year.

HOT UV

Waterless French waterless UV ink manufacturer (and new WPA sponsor) Encres Dubuit enlightened the group about inroads that UV waterless is making into markets previously served by other printing processes. Factors effecting the shift into UV waterless: printing on labels is more cost effective than printing on bottles, resulting in a shift from screen printing, letterpress and UV flexo into UV waterless offset. Biggest advantage of UV waterless is curing speed, which is a significant advantage in roll-to-roll label printing. Second market is printing on plastic: credit cards, CD’s and DVD’s, instead of screen printing. Some plastic cards are printed at 500 lpi.

Mark Andy, the world’s largest manufacturer of narrow web flexo presses, announced its new UV waterless press for the label market. Flexo has been the most predominant label printing process in the U.S., due to the need for variable repeat printing sizes. Asia primarily uses letterpress, and both processes are used equally in Europe. The ink train is a critical component of the new variable size UV waterless label presses developed by Mark Andy. The special patented ink fountain has a very precise method of measuring the amount of ink that is distributed onto the central distribution roller, which has a special surface on it that is coated to create a surface tension to properly draw the ink out of the fountain. Ink transfers from the central distribution roller to the form rollers, resulting in a closed loop offset ink system. Virtually 100% of the ink is transferred from the form rollers to the plate, eliminating any chance of ink build up on the form rollers. Ghosting is also eliminated, since Mark Andy’s closed loop system delivers ink both to and from the form rollers in balanced precision. Repeat variability is accomplished by changing the plate and blanket rolls or cylinders, which are available in sizes ranging from 12" to 24", in 1/8" increments. There is a micrometer adjustment on the ink fountain plus a "micro click" ink fountain key system for difficult jobs.

Presstek also announced UV waterless application of their platesetters on wide-web offset presses printing soda cans.

HOT Challenge

Len Cuprynski, Director of Materials Quality for Time, Inc., challenged us to continue to "lift the bar", and create barriers to prevent electronic media from encroaching on print media. Cuprynski was encouraged by the presentations and excited about the prospects of waterless’s future, but also vented his frustration that it is taking so long for the long run digital plates that he first heard about five years ago. "As a friend of yours," said Cuprynski, "I’m gonna tell you — it’s time to stop talking and start delivering on some of these items." "Waterless is a great process," he added. "Let’s keep it that way!"