Save Money with Our Chemfree CTP Violet Plates

Printing Industry Photo

If you are currently using a ctp violet plate that requires plate developer, replenisher and gum/finisher, it’s time you take a look at our Chemfree CTP Violet Plates. The cost of the chemfree violet plate is usually very competitive with even the cheapest violet plate that requires a plate developer, replenisher and gum/finisher. But where you’ll see a significant savings is in the chemistry.

Let’s say you are a small to medium size newspaper with an ECRM Mako CtP system and a Glunz & Jensen Raptor 68 plate processor. You use approximately a thousand 23 1/16″ x 35″ .008 violet plates per month that require developer, replenisher and gum. If you replace that plate with our chemfree plate and gum, you will totally eliminate the cost of developer and replenisher, and your yearly cost for gum will only be about $1,200. This is probably 1/3 of what you are paying yearly for developer, replenisher and gum/finisher.

We just recently did a cost analysis for a small newspaper using only 300 plates per month. In this instance our chemfree plate was actually about $0.15 more per plate or $540 more per year than what they are currently paying for plates. However, when we calculated what they are spending in plate chemistry, (developer, replenisher, finisher/gum) they are spending over $2,000 more per year than what they would be spending on our chemfree gum, remember our chemfree plate requires no developer or replenisher.

In addition to saving money on chemistry, customers have let us know about these advantages when replacing the development/replenisher with the VCF plate and Chemistry Free Gum. Below is a summary of the key benefits:

  • The VCF chemistry free plates can be use with existing violet CTP and processors systems. No hardware changes are required.
  • The CF Gum is much easier to work with by operators and much easier to clean up when a full change is required. Customers have indicated that they have saved approximately 50% time on clean up.
  •  A neutral (PH 7) gum normally does not have to be processed before disposing. Customers have been able to turn off their Metafix type devises saving both a step and additional chemistry for the unit to process developer before dumping.
  • The CF plate can use a Water Top-Up method to lower chemistry free gum costs and extend the life of the gum in the processor for the clean up phase.

In a summary, the VCF plates are easier to work with and remove many of the requirements on disposal of the higher PH developer chemistry.

Let us do a plate cost analysis for you to see how much money and time we can save you by switching to our chemfree violet plate. Call us for your cost analysis 864.269.9662

Thermal or Violet Plate – Which is Better? Part 3

Obviously there are pros and cons with both technologies. Thermal offers the user super high quality output, very long run lengths, and a wide variety of plate choices including processless, all with minimal environmental concerns. The downside of thermal is the higher acquisition cost, higher maintenance cost, and less speed compared to similarly priced violet systems.

So the question becomes, is the lower cost of violet technology worth it, given the quality, environmental, and plate choices you will have to make? Can the higher purchase price and maintenance cost of a thermal platesetter be justified? It is up to each buyer to decide which technology is the right choice for their location.

Thermal or Violet Plate – Which is Better? Part 2

What about run length: Thermal plates offer longer run lengths, but to achieve this, they must be baked. Unbaked run lengths can be anywhere from 100,000-350,000, but when baked, thermal plates can exceed 1 million impressions. Processless thermal plates can give run lengths of 100,000 impressions. Violet plate run length varies among manufacturers, from 100,000 to 250,000. Violet plates can also be baked to yield even longer run lengths .

What about plate cost. The most expensive plates are processless thermal plates. We are finding that cost per square foot on plates that require chemistry are about the same with both technologies. You will however find that your chemistry cost may be a little more with violet.

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Thermal or Violet Plate – Which is Better? Part 1

Thermal and Violet are the two primary technologies used in computer-to-plate systems. So which is better.

We will give you the pros and cons of each technology to help you decide which is better.

The first concern we all have is quality, although thermal is capable of producing super high quality unless you need line screens well above 200 lpi the quality that violet is capable of producing will be more than expectable.

In this economy we are all very concerned with cost, in most instances violet systems are less expensive.

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