Azura - Anyone using one

[Pagemakerguy]

I Wanted to see if anyone has used one of the new Azura plating systems

What do you think?

[beermonster]

soz no.

agfa came screeming in here once spilling the blurb about this new processless plate system

i said "that gumming unit looks like a processor of sorts"

"well yeah but this is gonna interest you big time" he said?

"do they have a B1 one?"

"well no not yet?"

"bye then mr agfa?i'm a B1 printer?"

havent kodak got a truely processless plate, where the non image area is hit by the laser (kind of like a negative plate) and the unused coating is removed by the press.

[geozinger]

Kodak does have the processorless plate that washes up on press...

I don't know how happy that would make our pressmen, however...

Also, it would almost double the exposure time on our Screen unit (I'm not sure about other platesetters, tho...)

As soon as my Kodak guy gets us on the list, we will try it, too.

[riverdoglb]

Getting Ascento/Azura system installed next week. I demo'd at a shop and they've been running since December with minimal issues. Will post back after instal when we're running.

[santa]

Hi All:

Was waiting to get a full 3 months under our belt before posting. It's just strange how issues always pop up on the 91st day right after the warranty expires.

Just a little background, we are a 4 up shop, running 1 shift on a 20 x 20 Komori Lithrone, who handle a lot of NYC Agency work, short run, high quality, as well as press proofings and tear sheets for pubs. Our issue was always the fact that one day we could run 50 sheets of 20 x 28 film and then run 2 or 4 pieces over the next three days, so pump and dump on chmistry was the rule and it started to get real expensive.

So we start our first foray into CTP with an "ablative" system, chemistry free, water bath only, no chemistry, great ROI, yada yada yada...8 months after the install came the de-install as the repeatability of any consistent dot shape was just no there in our case.

Still on the Chemistry free kick we demod theAgfa Azura with an AgfaAscento thermal platesetter (OEM Screen Platrite) all ran great and I thought if they suck we can just switch out the processor and run anyone's plates and back to chemistry we would go.

Well , the plates run great. We ran Fuji as our Analog plates for over 10 years and the pressman feel they behave every bit as well as those. They are grained, so no issues with water balance. When they come out of the gum unit they are dry and their is no residue being left in the ink trains like the "ablatives" and from my understanding the Swords.
The plates themselves hold a consistant dot and rung great at 175 lpi and we have played around a little bit with some of Artworks FM Hybrid screening with positive results. Run length in our shop rarely exceeds 75,000 impressions and the plates held up great over a 97,000 impression run.
Product availibility has been great with no issue getting plates or the Gum.

The gum unit itself is a simple as an analog plate processor and the maintenance is standard, rinse, flush and wipe 2 times a month. Takes one guy under 45 minutes (half of that time the machine is self cleaning and can run unattended) The nice thing is there is no need for plumbing as the gum unit just recirculates the gum out of the Gum jug and into the machine then back to the jug, and the fact that the gum is actualy being applied to the plates, waste is minimal.

The bottom line is that we have had 0 complaints from our customers and 0 complaints from the pressroom, and 0 complaints from the pre-press dept (me) and to me that's what it is all about.

[riverdoglb]

Santa-
Welcome news for us as this is the exact hardware we're going to be using although we'll be using ApogeeX. I was very leary of the ablative type plates so this kind of proves my suspicions. We have a 6 month guarantee from Agfa that if we don't like the chem free, they'll change out the plate & processor to a standard thermo at no charge.

Can I ask which model Ascento did you get, the "S" or "E". With that answered, how many plates per hour are you averaging? I know imaging the chem free is slower.

Thanks!

[santa]

Hi River:

We have the S model which is the Screen Platerite with an Agfa logo placed on it. Runs great. We have the manual load and so far I think one plate has been kicked back as a "bad load" since we have had it.

As far as plates per hour that can get tricky with us as we are rarely running from 7-4, but we can get an average of 10-11 plates per hour and it takes about 20 minutes from relaese of plate 1 for a 4 color set of plates.

Print Drive, which runs the Ascento also has some nice features like double burn (which lets you burn multiple colors on one plate, great for C, CVC problems that sometimes sneal through. Also you can back up plates through print drive, so repeats do not have to be re-ripped.

Best of luck and let us know how everything goes.

[riverdoglb]

One more question if I may. Do you manually punch your plates for press after developing or do you have a punch built in the Ascento?

[santa]

River:


Ask away after 12:00 on a Friday in the summer all our customers are either on their way to the Hamptons or Jersey Shore, so time is mine to kill.

We manually punch off line after they process. Using either our Stosser our Duarte Punch with no issues. Also we have an 11 x 17 Hamada 2c common blanket, which we need to cut plates after the fact, then punch and again no major issues, but also not hyper critical wotk on that press.

With the automation on the Komori, the few millimeters that an offline punch may be out is easily fixed on the press console within 1 pull, our pressmen said "don't get an internal punch on our account" although I would say it is nice, just like the plateloader we could not justify the cost. If your press does not have platecocking or if you have to manually rotate each cylinder, then I think the 3-6k?? is worth it for the internal punch.

For the $45K plus it would cost for full automation we were able instead to hire an Aprentice from a local computer school who can do a lot more than just load and punch plates, although he is excellent at doing just that.

He still hasn't found the bucket of halftone dots yet!

[hoking]

BE WARNED!

We have had it installed for over 1month now, and the thing still doesn't function properly.

Plates jam, and the system crashes all the time.

Agfa has confirmed that the plate clamps n such on the machine is not functioning properly and the software itself still has alot of bugs.

We are very disappointed in the POS.

This greatly stresses our prepress because now we are down to one Platesetter which is a Heidelberg Topsetter.

We run 2 shifts supporting the following:
Heidelberg CD102 6c + Coating
Heidelberg SM102 4c
Heidelberg SM74 5c
Heidelberg SM72 4c
Heidelberg MO 1c

Lots of plates need to be plated.

Enough said.