WA newspaper goes Agfa no-water, no-chemistry CTP

The commercial print enterprise of the South Western Times in Bunbury, Western Australia has made the move to processless plate production.

Owned by West Australian Newspapers Limited, the South Western Times is WA's largest non-daily regional newspaper. Its commercial print arm, Times Print, handles a range of print jobs from local customers, from simple single-colour dockets to 4- colour process work. Around 600 plates a month are produced for two 2-colour presses and one single-colour press.

The move to Azura plates with an Acento platemaker has removed the reliance on chemicals and water in the platemaking process, and the transition from analog to CtP has eliminated the film-making step - a costly and time-consuming process. The added benefit of an  ApogeeX digital workflow and the Acento's accuracy has also reduced plate remakes and wastage on make-readies.

This has made an 'enormous difference' to the production environment,
says commercial print manager David Brady. "Our productivity improved, and quality improved. And the system did everything Agfa said it would do. We couldn't be happier," he says.  "I've moved from being a half-time
platemaker and half-time printer to being a full-time printer now. It's freed us up to get more work done and take on new jobs."

The :Acento 4-up thermal platesetter features automatic plate size adjustments and inline punching. Separate loading/unloading bays allow one plate to be staged while another is imaged. The JDF-based :ApogeeX workflow includes flight checking and previewing prior to proofing and plating so that spot colours can be remapped to process without resending the job, resulting in reduced plate remakes.

The :Azura plates use ThermoFuse technology which relies on a coating of
themoplastic latex particles on a grained, anodised aluminium plate. When imaged in a standard thermal platesetter, the latex particles in the image areas fuse to the plate in a chemical- and water-free process. Un-imaged areas are removed with a non-chemical, re-usable gumming solution.

Brady says the :Azura's chemistry-free process has helped the company meet the strict OH&S policies of owners WA News, with a cleaner environment free of unpleasant and potentially-harmful odours.

"No chemistry has also saved us problems with the EPA. Because we're not in the middle of the city we rely on septic tanks for our waste water and the EPA do occasional checks on the ground water. There's virtually nothing harmful coming out of the processor now," he says.

"We haven't worked out exactly how much water we were using but it was significant. Our water usage has now dropped. This is the company's way of doing their bit to save water."