Sunraysia Daily shines with chemistry-free plate install

Victorian newspaper, Sunraysia Daily, cleans up with installation of violet chemical-free plate technology from Agfa.

The N92V VCF was installed only last week. According to Jeremy Blake, press operations manager, the results have been impressive. “Already, we’ve noticed better quality,” he said.

Prior to installing N92V VCF, the Sunraysia Daily was using Agfa’s Analogue plate technology. Blake said that it made the decision to switch over based partly on the environmental credentials of N92V VCF. “We looked at a lot of different CtPs but this machine is smaller and compact and suited us down to the ground,” he said.

“From what we’ve seen so far there will be substantial savings with materials and time savings with labour.”

At last year’s PacPrint, Agfa showcased its new N92V violet chemical-free plates for newspapers and since then, Koni Neuhofer, (pictured) business manager, Agfa prepress, reports that several newspaper printers have rushed in to take part, with New Zealand’s Greymouth Evening Star scooping the honour as the first in the Oceania region.

“Chemistry-free plates for newspapers have been a long time coming and now that it’s available, customers are very keen to go down that path. So far all our installations and conversions have been highly successful,” Neuhofer said.

“As we go forward, water will become a value commodity, something that is eliminated in the Violet Chem Free process. Having less chemicals used means less waste and reduced downtime in cleaning machinery processes.”

More recently, South Australian newspaper, The Murray Pioneer, completed its installation of new Agfa N92-VCF chemistry-free plate technology due to environmental concerns.