This is an easy read....and from dec 1996
gammag.com
Vowing a Role in Direct-To Markets
Presstek continues to explore and invest in innovations: digital, thermal, direct, off-press, and waterless.
By Hadley Sharples, Associate Editor
With more than 50 patents in thermal imaging and plate technology, Presstek, Inc. is vowing to become a strong competitor in the crowded direct-to-plate and direct-to-press markets. After several years of success supplying its Pearl laser imaging technology to Heidelberg GTO-DI and Quickmaster DI presses, Presstek is now also venturing into direct, off-press plate imaging.
Because of efficiency, the movement to direct imaging is inexorable, says Presstek's president, Robert Verrando. While he believes on-press imaging will prevail, he thinks the industry also needs an off-line solution in the interim to use with existing press equipment.
Last year, the company introduced a two-up and a four-up computer-to-plate machine using Pearl technology. Presstek delivered 24 machines worldwide in the first half of 1996 and expects to manufacture between 150 and 200 in 1997.
It also debuted two digital thermal ablative plates that do not require photochemical processing and can be handled in daylight, one that works with existing fountain solutions and another that uses waterless inks. Gerber Systems and Creo Products have been testing the plates and will announce compatibility with their eight-up thermal platesetters shortly. In one recent seven-color test, PearlDry thermal plates were exposed in a Creo Trendsetter, then run on a waterless sheetfed to noteworthy results.
Pearl thermal plates and PearlSetter system won a 1996 InterTech Technology Award from the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, in recognition of an innovation predicted to have a major industry impact.
Presstek sees a promising future for plate manufacturing, which Verrando estimates at more than $2.5 billion worldwide each year. While acknowledging the presence of numerous and sizable competitors in the field, Verrando believes there will be great demand for a true digital plate, one that requires no post processing; its current plates require a cleaning step after imaging.
In September, Presstek broke ground on a 100,000-sq-ft facility in Hudson, N.H., to be operational by early 1998, to manufacture thermal plates. By the end of 1999, Presstek will have added another 150,000 sq ft of space, in which to consolidate its headquarters and engineering facilities.
The new manufacturing operation will be the first use of the vacuum deposition coating technology acquired this year by Catalina Coatings. Catalina is building the plate manufacturing machinery for Presstek, which will be installed in the new facility next year.
Presstek's relationship with Heidelberg, to which it licenses its on-press imaging technology, remains solid, says Sandy Fuhs, Presstek's marketing manager. Presstek has shipped more than 250 Quickmaster DI imaging kits to Heidelberg, each consisting of four Pearl laser imaging units, four rolls of PearlDry plate material, the press computer, and all the necessary hardware and software.
Presstek has agreed to work with other press manufacturers, too. Pearl on-press imagers will be used on four-up Omni-Adast sheetfed presses in two-, four-, and five-color models, and on Nilpeter label presses, in their first application on a web press. The latter is a precursor to seamless digital printing, says Verrando, who adds that, to meet the web market's demand for gapless printing, Presstek has developed software that can image continually regardless of whether or not there is a gap on the plate.
Graphic Arts Monthly December 1996 |
