The violet CTP unit punches, exposes, washes and dries plates from a roll of polyester material at a rate of up to 20 B2 plates an hour at 2,540dpi or 40 plates an hour at 1,270dpi.

In addition to the standard 0.2mm guage polyester plate material, which is supplied in 61m rolls and used for B3 plate production, Mitsubishi has developed a thicker 0.3mm guage material on 41m rolls to enable the production of more rigid B2 plates.

The CTP unit has the capacity to hold two rolls at one time, allowing rapid switching between different guage materials, for instance.

Apex managing director Bob Usher said: "We have a long association with polyester plates. When treated with care polyester plates should provide for print runs in excess of 20,000 with no great problem.

"This new Mitsubishi unit comes along at just the right time for us. We see it filling a gap in the market vacated by the DPX series of machines that we were selling. Over 500 units of that model were installed in the UK and so we believe that there is certainly a market for this new unit – especially when printers are seeking more environmentally friendly products and more cost effective production solutions."

Pricing for the VDP-4 was not available at the time of writing.