According to Kodak, the new Sonora UV Process Free plates can deliver longer run lengths for UV print applications than any other process free plate - up to 30,000 impressions.
Developed for sheetfed, heatset web, and commercial coldset presses the new plate is designed for a broad range of applications such as commercial print, newspapers, and packaging.
Kodak said the plate was developed to help a wider range of printers to tap into the environmental and economic benefits of process-free plates and expanded UV opportunities including flexibility, quality and faster drying.
UK marketing manager David McGuiness said: “The UV process has completely reinvigorated plate offerings. UV is more demanding but gives you benefits at the back end of the press.
“Also the process-free plate does away with not just the chemistry but the plate processors, water, heat and equipment footprints. There are also knock-on benefits.
“There is no more need for lorries to trundle along your industrial estate picking up chemicals, no need for chemistry storage areas and less heavy lifting for staff. So as well as all the print and environmental benefits, staff wellbeing improves too.”
Sonora UV is based on technology used in the XJ Process Free Plate that has been commercially available in Japan since 2016.
In the pressroom, Sonora UV plates, like the flagship XP version, work with customers' existing press setups.
One user of Sonora plates is Cre Art Die Werbeproduktion in Fulda, Germany. Production director Torsten Gröger said the Sonora UV plates involved less effort and lower costs but offered more stability.
“The process-free plate and capabilities of our press, equipped with UV and print enhancement extras, enables production of complex and demanding jobs on any substrate.
“The level of creativity and quality is very high, and this kind of job would have been technically impossible a few years ago.
"The Sonora UV Process Free Plate enables significantly longer run lengths with at least twice as many impressions as we get from the Sonora XP Plate.”
