Agfa P970 plate.

[ihateprepress]

Has anyone used this CTP plate?

I'm very interested to hear how people have gone with this plate, as well as what their particular scenario is.

[steveagfa]

Dear ihate:

Agfa's :Thermostar or P970 has been our mainstay
for our traditional digital thermal plate line since 1997.

Of note, it has been perhaps the most robust plate
of all to replace the now defunct bi-metal PDI plates.

It's a no pre-heat, yet bakable plate; once baked,
the image is nearly indestructible. It has been a
"one size fits all" plate in our assortment. Now, Agfa
is starting to roll-out our Energy line of plates, first
with a P970 replacement chemistry - this in itself
is giving P970 even better performance.

With Energy, we will have three distinct attributes,
designed to specifically meet different aggressive
pressroom applications.

Customers moving to P970 remark of its grain,
and its superb ink-water balance... perhaps even
requiring less water than they are used to.

Depending on your application, you might also
wish to consider Agfa's :Azura chemistry-free,
or :Amigo reduced chemistry plates. All are
attaining wide industry acceptance.

Regards,

[ihateprepress]

Thanks Steve,

How well does this plate perform un-baked?

The Azura plate looks very promising, though I've heard they take much longer to image. Is this correct?

[steveagfa]

ihate...

P970's performance unbaked is dependent on
your pressroom chemistry; it's best to address
this locally. Part of the new Energy assortment is
to address this specific application requirement.

Azura does indeed require more energy; depending
on your platesetter, this could slow the throughput
down from 15 - 45%. Amigo, based on the same
principle as Azura, is about 35 - 50% faster than Azura.

[steveagfa]

iHate...

I mis-spoke...
some platesetters,
typically entry-level
Trendsetters, have
no throughput hit
when using :Azura.

So, throughput degradation
depends upon your platesetter.

[ihateprepress]

Originally Posted by steveagfa

iHate...

I mis-spoke...
some platesetters,
typically entry-level
Trendsetters, have
no throughput hit
when using :Azura.

So, throughput degradation
depends upon your platesetter.

We're running a Screen PTR4100, which is (i believe) the entry level thermal, outputting 10 plates per hour.

Anyhow, thanks for your help, you've been a great help.

Cheers

Jon