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What a difference 12 months make. After a desperately poor 2009, a perfect storm of factors helped the platesetter market make a dramatic recovery last year, with manufacturers reporting steep rises in equipment sales.

"We sold twice the number of platesetters last year compared to 2009," says Screen UK managing director Brian Filler.

"Confidence within the industry has returned, with Ipex proving to be a catalyst for many companies to invest in higher-speed machines."

According to Filler, ever decreasing run lengths have meant faster platesetters are becoming all the more necessary to keep up with press demand. Screen’s own latest B1 PlateRite is five times faster than its earliest model.

In addition, manufacturers believe the platesetter market has now matured to the point where early models are ripe for replacement. "The CTP market exploded in the early 2000s and now many of those machines are reaching the end of their life," explains Agfa director of commercial sales Ralph Hilsdon. "Older platesetters that are difficult to repair, or have obsolete spare parts, should really be replaced."

Hilsdon agrees with Filler that the productivity of the platesetter is critical. There are significant cost differences between machines of varying throughput, but Hilsdon believes that, in most cases, the extra expense can be justified. "A printer with only two presses may not think they need a fast platesetter. However, whereas an average job may take two hours today, come next year it may only take an hour. So effectively, plate demand will have doubled."

Automated plate loading and unloading will only help to speed the platemaking process up. Sean Lane, product manager for offset solutions at Fujifilm believes automation can go a long way to help save on staff costs. In theory at least, many platesetters can be left unattended overnight.

Buying a ‘keeper’
Lane also says it’s important to make sure the technology is as ‘future-proof’ as possible. "Choose a platesetter with trusted technology, such as thermal or violet, which will be able to keep up with demand for the next two to three years," he says.

Today, processless and chemistry-free platemaking now accounts for around half of total plate production. Aside from being more environmentally friendly, removing chemistry increases the productivity of the platemaking process as there is much less cleaning and maintenance involved.

"Unless they have run-length of more than 250,000, or if they work with UV inks, which tend to be very hostile to the plates, I would go so far to say that any printer that can switch to processless or chemistry-free production, will make that switch," says Hilsdon. "The benefits far outweigh the disadvantages."

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WHAT'S NEW IN… PLATESETTERS
• Interprint switched to chemistry-free production with the purchase of an Avalon N8 platesetter last month. The Yorkshire-based B2 printer now uses Agfa’s Azura TS plates, which, according to digital manager Andy Clarke, produce clear, defined images and require no on-press adjustments
• Pelican Trust installed a Cobra-2 violet platesetter with Cascade RIP from HighWater Products in November. The Lincoln-based printer and charitable trust made the investment to enhance the quality and efficiency of its pre-press operation
• Also in November, specialist printer Ryedale Group bought a Screen PlateRite 4300. The company says the investment was necessary to handle the larger, US-format of its new B2+ Komori Lithrone SX29
• Danish manufacturer Glunz & Jensen unveiled its latest chemistry-free inkjet platesetter at Ipex last year. The B2 PlateWriter 3000 is aimed at small to medium-sized printers and is claimed to be up to four times faster than existing models