Thermal-vs-violet – McCourt’s column to the rescue

It’s on again – the charge of the thermal-vs-visible light brigade. At the risk of ending up like most of the ‘500’ I’ll thunder on with them into the Valley of Death.

Last week, Print21 Online published a reply from Creo’s VP of Marketing, to a ‘Critical Assessment’ article written about them, and published globally, by UK-based industry analyst Andy Tribute. (see Dateline News on this week's home page www.print21.com.au)

I’ve read the article, and Creo’s response. I’m concerned that, amongst all the mud slinging, bias and defensive posturing, buyers of CTP are becoming more confused. I receive regular calls from printers asking me ‘what system should I buy’ as I’ve written several articles on CTP over the years. My main concern now is to illuminate the resurrected thermal-vs-visible light debate. Dead cat anyone?

I know Andy Tribute and he is one very clever bloke. His views are always forthright and often controversial. He wouldn’t be the respected writer he is otherwise. In 2002, I read his critical assessment of Heidelberg, recommending the sale of the digital division. They listened and he was right. He was one of those ‘bright young things’ that the UK produces every now and then. He was European Editor for the seminal Seybold Reports and was sending complete pages to (Monotype) imagesetters before CEPS and DTP was even mentioned. He knows his onions.

Andy’s critical assessment – actually more critique than assessment – of Creo
is a different can of worms, and why Creo has been singled out for
such is a mystery to me. At drupa, Andy was retained by Esko Graphics – a
company with no thermal CTP technology and to whom Creo represents the
only real competition to them in the Flexo/CTP area. Michael Mittelhaus, a CTP
consultant cited in the article, is also listed as having performed
work for Esko Graphics on their website. Indeed, any visitor to drupa
only had to stop by the Esko Graphics booth to see Andy Tribute
presenting, and even showing a ‘commercial for Esko Graphics’ in his
mixture. It’s still up there on his website:

www.attributes.co.uk.

Now this is all very well, his business is his own affair and good luck to him, but I am concerned his article might mislead purchasers of CTP faced with a thermal-vs-visible light choice, Creo or otherwise.

Screen’s affable general manager Gary Seidl once told me “Australia is mostly a thermal CTP market.” This bears out the Creo VP’s retort that, where Andy Tribute noted Creo had lost some sales to Screen, these had largely been to another thermal system.

Make ready is king
The most beneficial thing any printer can do for his business is to reduce make-ready time. This in turn reduces wastage, enables them to compete with short-run digital and frees up the press for more work. Thermal plates can be made faster, and usually run up to colour quicker when on-press. Dots are invariably consistent (square or otherwise!), and the promise of processless thermal plates, such as Agfa’s Azura, has obvious environmental benefits. Also, you can’t over or under-expose a thermal plate.

Having said that, there is a place for non-thermal CTP. Polyester plates get better all the time and, while not suitable for top-notch long-run work, can produce pleasing results for the B3 and B2 press market. Polyester plates are imaged with visible light and developed in a similar way to silver-halide film from an imagesetter. The imaging device costs less than a thermal machine and the material can be on a roll, costing very little per square metre of plate.

For metal plates, violet light (410nm) lasers are the most popular option for the visible light brigade. Plates such as the Fuji Brillia, Mitsubishi SDP-Alpha and Agfa Lithostar Ultra-V (positive working) are exposed, chemically processed and, being silver-based, (although photopolymer versions are coming in), behave in a similar fashion on-press to analogue plates. Because of this, some printers find the transition to CTP easier with violet machines and plates. The hardware generally costs less than thermal, and can be faster in production. However, one of the champions of violet CTP –Canada’s Escher-Grad (represented here by New Media Tech), has just announced it is developing thermal 4pp and 8pp machines as well. Agfa, Fuji and Heidelberg also offer both thermal and violet CTP.

The only supplier of UV CTP using conventional visible light plates, Basys Print, got into financial difficulty and was purchased by Punch International (Xeikon owners) in July 2004. I’m not convinced UV CTP has a long future.

I have read that violet plates are supposed to cost less than thermal plates but every time I’ve checked real prices printers are paying, thermal plates are costing $4-$5 per square metre less than violet. There’s more choice with thermal – more now that Creo itself is making plates. With violet, in Australia it’s really only Agfa. The Fuji Brillia and Mitsubishi metal violet plates seem in short supply.

So here’s my call.

• 
  If you can afford the hardware, especially if you are a larger
  format, 8pp, printer, go thermal. Go processless thermal when available (and no, I’m not retained by Agfa, Creo or KPG). No darkroom or safelight needed.
  


• If you want cheaper hardware, and are be a B2 or smaller format
  printer and you want less change to the way plates behave when you go CTP,
  choose a Violet CTP setter and plates. Make sure you buy the right processor
  and chemistry. And remember, the hardware may cost less but the Total Cost
  of Operation in making plates will most likely be higher. You need to handle
  undeveloped plates in yellow safelight.


• If you are an A3/B3 printer or B2 printer doing mostly two-colour work with the occasional four-colour, look into one of the excellent polyester plate CTP choices. ECRM even has one that will do both metal and polyester CTP. For small offset, Silvermaster and Setprint CT Plates have been around for years.

If you are not thinking of CTP at all (or digital printing); sell now.

What are your experiences? Are you facing the decision or have you already made the leap to thermal, violet or polyester?

Get back to Andy: Andy@print21.com.au