Austria's Largest Privately-Owned Publishing Company First to Use Agfa's New Violet Chemistry-Free Digital Plates.
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Elimination of Chemistry, Strong Image Contrast, and No On-Press Contamination among the Benefits of New Agfa Technology.
Vienna, Austria, Ifra 07- Stand B620 October 09, 2007 18:00
Agfa Graphics announced today that its new line of violet chemistry-free digital plates is now in use at Austria's largest privately-owned publishing company, Mediaprint. The non-ablative plates, which work with low-power, reliable violet diodes, produce exceptionally strong image contrast and no on-press contamination. Ifra attendees will be able to see the new Agfa plate technology on the Agfa stand as well as having the option to visit Mediaprint during the show to see the technology in a real-life newspaper production environment.
The new violet plates eliminate the high-pH developers commonly used in platemaking, which is better for the environment, removing the variables that often arise in traditional plate processing.
"We are delighted with the results of our new violet chemistry-free digital plates. We are seeing run lengths of 200,000 combined with excellent quality and press performance. With the elimination of developers and processing variables, the highest possible levels of consistency become a practical reality," said Agfa Graphics' Andy Grant, worldwide newspaper segment manager.
"There are important environmental benefits, too, and when those are combined with the plates' reliability and lost-cost of operaton, what we have is exactly what newspaper production personnel have been waiting for," added Grant. "Our research shows a strong need for this kind of digital plate technology at commercial and newspaper printers around the world."
Mediaprint, which began operations in 1988 and currently has more than 2000 employees, prints a wide range of newspapers, including four dailies, one of which has a circulation of over one million.
While the new plates are bring used in Mediaprint's rigorous printing environment, they will continue to be run through many more tests by Agfa Graphics before availability is expanded. The violet chemistry-free plates will be available in the second quarter of 2008.
Erwin Busselot
Public Relations Manager
Septestraat 27
2640 Mortsel - Belgium
tel:++ 32 (0) 3 444 4101
erwin.busselot@agfa.com
