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Agfa launched the Acento to a fanfare of publicity at Drupa 2004. In addition to the new environmentally-friendly CTP machine the firm’s Messe stand featured a Harley Davidson motorbike, which aptly reflected Agfa’s intention to rev up its pre-press offer to commercial sheetfed printers. The 4-up machine was unveiled at the same time as the chemistry-free Azura plate range and the two were designed to go hand in hand.

According to Agfa’s director of commercial system sales, Ralph Hilsdon, the Acento was launched to plug a gap that the company had identified. "At the time the market was moving towards thermal and while we had a 4-up visible machine, we didn’t have a thermal option. We were also launching a plate that we had high hopes for so we needed a machine to go with that."

Two different versions of the Acento were released – the E and the S. The E was capable of producing 10 plates per hour and the S could churn out 20 plates per hour. The speed of the machine is dictated by the number of laser channels used – the slower model has 16 laser diodes in a row whereas the faster model features 32 diodes in a row. One of the key benefits of the Acento, according to Hilsdon, is that unlike some faster higher performance machines, individual diodes can be replaced rather than replacing the entire laser head, which helps to keep service costs down.

The design of the external drum machine is pretty simple. You load the plate into the drum where it’s punched and then the drum spins around allowing the diodes to image the plate. The loading of plates can be done manually, but Agfa also offers autoloaders as an additional extra. There are three autoloaders available – a 50 plate autoloader with single cassette, a 100 plate autoloader with single cassette or a 3x100 autoloader with slip-sheet removal. When the machine was launched, most models sold into the UK market were manual, but with labour costs increasing over the years most new models are now sold with some sort of autoloader.

This combination of machine and chemistry-free plate clearly appealed to the target market with the Acento racking up around 150 installations in the UK at last count. The machine was renamed the Avalon N4 last year to coincide with the launch of a revised model, although Hilsdon says that the difference in spec between the two is minimal. One big difference was the step up in speed, but that was largely facilitated by the launch of the faster Azura TS plate.

Dependable performer
According to Hilsdon one of the machine’s key strength is its reliability. "It’s an absolutely rock solid workhorse," he explains, so don’t expect to see a flood of machines hitting the secondhand market any day soon.

While the price of a new Avalon starts at circa £60,000, a six-year-old machine might go for £20,000-£25,000 with a one- or two-year-old model going for somewhere in the region of £30,000-£45,000. "The machines seem to hold their value well," says Hilsdon. "If there’s one available, it’s not the sort of thing that sits on the shelf gathering dust."

Agfa takes used Acento’s in part-exchange and sells them directly and through the UK dealer network, but Hilsdon says that used models come back very rarely and if they do it’s usually the entire system that’s on offer. "What makes the product such a good seller is the fact that it is combined with Azura plates and a pretty good workflow [Apogee] as well."

As the product is still manufactured there are no issues when it comes to getting hold of spare parts. Agfa offers a range of service contracts and has nationwide engineer coverage. Printers considering buying a used Acento should always check the service record, advises Hilsdon. "A machine on a service contract will have been serviced a couple of times a year so the optics will have been kept clean. Generally they’re pretty well maintained machines, but because they’re thermal there’s usually some degree of ablation so always look inside and make sure that it’s clean."

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SPECIFICATIONS
Max plate size 830x660mm
Min plate size 324x370mm
Plate thickness 0.15-0.3mm
Max resolution 2,400dpi
Weight 645kg
Footprint 3.5x1.7m
Price New Avalon N4 - from £60,000; Six-year-old Acento - £20,000-£25,000
What to look for
• Service history
• Condition of lasers