Agfa Gevaert  plates - offset  CTP 
Wellington’s TBD decided to hold off from investing in CTP until the arrival of chemistry free platemaking. The decision is now paying dividends John Serepisos, managing director of Wellington trade house TBD, was unwilling to convert his company’s prepress operation to computer-to-plate until the technology was available to eliminate chemistry from the platemaking process. With the arrival of Agfa’s :Azura chemistry-free plate system, Sereposis found the technology he needed to phase out his old film system, and to refocus the company on its prepress strengths.

“I hate chemicals,” he says. “After using chemistry in the imagesetter for all those years I wanted to get away from it.” He had considered converting to CTP for five or six years but was discouraged by the size and expense of the systems available. “And I wasn’t happy with the technology,” he adds. “I wouldn’t have moved to CTP now without the new chemistry-free process.”

TBD has installed an Agfa :Acento thermal platesetter running :Azura plates. Although the old imagesetter is still available, Serepisos plans to phase it out.

“We only have to worry about the plates now - there are no consumables and no plumbing is needed for washing out chemicals or plates. Our ongoing costs have also reduced significantly – we are saving around $1,000 a month in chemistry and our maintenance is right down.”

Agfa’s :Azura plates, launched to the region at Pacprint 2005, use a physical process to image the plates – not a chemical one. The plate combines a standard electrochemically-grained and anodised aluminium base with a single layer coating of ink-accepting thermofusable (latex) particles. When exposed in the :Acento platesetter, the thermal laser fuses the particles in the image area to physically bond the image to the plate. The plate then passes through the :Azura C85 cleaning unit where a gum wash removes the unfused areas.

“It’s important to recognise that this is not a processor,” says Serepisos. “It’s a simple gummer and washer which draws less than 2Kw of power. The gum also protects the hydrophilic aluminium substrate from oxidation and the plate is ready to go straight to the press once it exits the cleaning unit.”

TBD (Typography by Design) began as a ‘one-man band’ typesetting business in 1992 with Serepisos working from home. A few years later he opened a small office in Wellington. The business ‘took off’ with the introduction of film imaging and prepress became a major focus. As the technological landscape changed, it diversified into digital printing and multimedia/web applications and now has over 20 staff.

“With the new CTP system, we’re coming back again to our prepress focus,” he explains, “back to our strengths and what we know best.” Without CTP he admits the company lost work but installing the :Azura/:Acento system has given TBD a point of difference to other operators. It has already converted several lost customers over and won new ones.

The thermal, external drum :Acento is ideal for the New Zealand market, where most print runs are less than 10,000 and run as 4-up formats. It has separate loading and unloading bays for quicker plate production (around 14 plates an hour).

The auto-balance feature enables the platesetter to use different plate sizes without needing manual adjustments each time to correct drum balance. Automatic inline punching (with punch configurations for all major printing press types) makes the plates are ready for press mounting.

Although automated plate handling is available on the :Acento, Serepisos chose the manual plate loading model.

“As a trade house, we carry too many varieties of plates to use the plate manager option. We have around a dozen different plate sizes, from a GTO 52 up to Speedmaster 74, and we can provide plates cut to size.”

According to Serepisos the new equipment, which also included an:ApogeeX workflow upgrade and :Sublima screening, plugged easily into the existing prepress system and within two weeks of installation TBD were producing plates for customers.

He believes the big advantage with the :Azura system is that, without the requirement for a processor, plate quality is not affected by the chemistry. Process-related quality variables are eliminated.

“The performance of the plates is great. They are spotless and all the printers that have seen them are very happy with the quality and reproduction – the best plates they have ever seen.”

Online ordering going great
With the new CTP installation, TBD can now offer its customers a unique online job order system that does away with ftp log-ins, password requirements, or the need to send file attachments. Utilising the company’s web development expertise, the site steps customers through six easy-to-follow screens to enter job details and upload artwork files (up to 20MB for each file) directly to TBD.

“The website collects all the information and sends an email directly to the prepress operator,” explains Serepisos. “You don’t have to email file attachments or try to remember log-in passwords. The files are physically moved from the customer’s hard drive to TBD’s order system. It’s as easy as that.”