Plate product manager Mike Loose was dismissive of rival suppliers Fuji and KPG's "elastic promise" of thermal no-process: "At every Ipex and Drupa it's always 'next year'. Well, Azura is available and shipping now."
Loose is aiming the product at firms using up to 8,000m2 of plates per year, with runs of up to 100,000. Printers with a workflow that involves long gaps between platemaking will also be targeted.
"Despite the maturity of the market, purchasing decisions are still made without regard to the hidden costs of processing," he said. "I would argue that these costs could equate to the cost of a platesetter over five years. We asked 100 printers if they wanted developer-free plates, and the overwhelming answer was 'yes'. With Azura the processing is physical, not chemical.
"People making plates these days are not the Swarfega brigade of the past. They don't want to be involved in dirty chemicals," he added.
Loose said he also thought the plate would give typical B2 printers "a huge marketing edge" over rivals.
Azura is based on Agfa's Thermolite plate for direct imaging (DI) presses, and is manufactured at its plant in Wiesbaden, Germany. It costs around 20% more than a conventional thermal CTP plate. It is a negative working plate based on a conventional grained and anodised Agfa substrate, which is coated with thermofusable latex pearls. It is not bakeable or suitable for use with UV inks.
After exposure, the plate is "processed" in the C85 gumming unit where the unexposed non-image area is removed by a set of scrubbing rollers. There is no need for any traditional chemistry-based processing, no parameters or temperature control to adjust, and no water connection or drain is required.
After 300m2 of plate has been gummed a 15 minute self-cleaning cycle is instigated using plain water. This generates one 20 litre bottle of waste liquid that is non-hazardous.
Agfa is initially teaming the Azura plate with its Acento platesetter, and this is the configuration at UK beta site Crown Litho.
Agfa's UK salesforce has just been introduced to the product, and its main dealers Openshaw and Litho Supplies are also selling it. Openshaw secured the Crown Litho sale.
A second UK user has already been signed up, and Agfa expects to sell 20 Acento/Azura systems in the UK next year. There are already 18 installations on the continent.
It will introduce a B1 gumming unit at Graph Expo next month, and the plate will be teamed with the Xcalibur X45 for this market next year. This combination is slated to be on show at Northprint.
In the future it's likely that 830nm platesetters from other suppliers will be accredited to work with the plate.
Story by Jo Francis
