New AZURA plates?

[beermonster]

mmm - more power means less speed....mmmm

steve? oi! agfa man!!!!!!   OI!!!!!!!!

[steveagfa]

Hmmm...

A faster plate that requires more power?
My, that is marketing!

I suspect you'll see a next generation
Azura plate that is faster on devices
that are less efficient than Creo & Agfa/
Avalons.

To require higher power lasers to get
faster throughput is counter-intuitive,
for a next-generation Azura.even

Wait a minute - wasn't that what
Fuji was doing for violet processless?
(Require a non-existent high-power
violet laser for decent speed?)


Regards,

(Did Fuji answer that open question
on PPF yet?)

[kermit]

I just had my Fuji plate rep visit yesterday and he asked me angrily if I want to cut my productivity in half by switching to Agfa? Is that true that my Screen 8600 will become a snail?

[steveagfa]

Kermit -

<snip>
I just had my Fuji plate rep visit yesterday and he
asked me angrily if I want to cut my productivity in
half by switching to Agfa?
<snip>

Will your platesetter become a snail?

No, it won't become a snail, but indeed,
with the current versaion of Azura, the
drum speed is reduced in half for Screen
devices. Other devices, like our Avalon,
and even most Creos, have little through-
put degredation, due to the imager design.

Yes, Fuji's chemistry-free plates are faster
than Agfa's Azura and Kodak's Thermal Direct.
But this degradation is nothing to get "angry"
about. The whole process and impact needs
to be put in perspective.

Did your Fuji rep talk about the 1-hour
restriction for the plates to be in white light?

Did your rep address the issue of Quality Control?
(or, lack of image contrast?)

Did your rep talk about the process to measure
the plates?

Did your rep talk about the issue of even though
you might be able to clean off an area of the plate
to measure, the plate still is subject to white light fog,
and the measurement is therefore moot?

Did your rep talk about the issues of incomplete roll-up,
where in more and more cases, clean-out units are being
provided?

Did your rep talk about the systematic approach to roll-up
on press being a specific "process", that needs to be consistent?

Did your rep talk about the narrow exposure threshold, where
careful exposure remains, as oppossed to Azura?

What difference does a 50% ( in your case) decrease in
throughput mean, when you are moving (lack of) process
control over to the press?

No wonder he's angry!

[beermonster]

if a rep gets angry with me i show his ass the toe of my boot.

all plates need cleaning out - do you do it prepress or on press. personally - i'd prefer a consistant clean out prepress - so while you may have a reduced "plate out of the door" time - there will be little to compare time wise since the press minder's gotta hang em, run up, get weight and hope he doesnt put the cyan where the yellow is...while mr azura user is there already....

for me speed is not as important as quality - an un-clened-out plate is not the best quality i could give the press. thats the trade off - and that list mr angry above listed. of course speed is important too - but do you let the press clean out or do it in a gummer

are fuji saying if you are not comfortable using the press as a clean out unit they will supply one? dummm asses - they've been selling that as a time loser.

[kermit]

if a rep gets angry with me i show his ass the toe of my boot.

Are you wearing steel toe boots beer?

[beermonster]

winkle pickers mate - verrrry pointed!

[Marktonk]

Beer,

My dogs do not like your new avatar.....

To all,

Just back from a great 10 day vacation, no kids this time, boating on a lake, beautiful weather ....paying the price with over 500 e-mails when I got back, tons of projects and plenty of meeting.

Here is one of the reason we choose  chemfree (ours is Saphira Chemfree) over a processless/develop on press. Processless emulsion is loosened up by the dampening and then taken off on the make ready sheets. Must be a smart emulsion in that it knows to only go on the sheets and not into the dampening system or ink train. Ponder this, what if you do not always use full sheet size, where does the emulsion go????? There is no paper to carry the emulsion away outside of the sheet size. First person to guess right gets an autograph picture of Steve.

Maybe a clean out unit is not such a bad idea...keep it out of the press.

Regards,

Mark Tonkovich
Heidelberg USA
Product Manager, CtP & Proofing

[beermonster]

well keep your dogs away from my hell cat  and they wont get shot

[prepresstex]

But the they are great dont buy the washer use an old coventional plate processor it will do the job or you can do it by hand

[beermonster]

i'm not so sure about that, then again we didn't BUY ours - I got agfa to throw it in......