Today, with the rapid development of digital and network technology, printing technology has sprung up to show infinite vitality, such as violet laser technology, infrared laser technology, CtcP technology, thermal technology, inkjet technology, and other printing technologies that have emerged one after another. Thermal plates, photosensitive plates, and silver salt plates are also widely used in the printing industry as the main types of CTP plates. Among them, thermal CTP technology and its plates are widely favored by the printing industry because of its unique features such as high imaging quality and are considered to be one of the most promising technologies. Statistics show that thermal CTP plates have accounted for nearly 40% of global sales in recent years, and there are more than 15 thermal CTP plates on the market for customers to use. Without a doubt, thermal CTP technology has proven to be the most successful plate-making technology today and is the choice of printers worldwide. So, why do so many users choose to use thermal CTP technology and its printing plates, and what advantages does thermal CTP technology have?
1. Bright room operation
This is an important feature different from photosensitive imaging materials. Since the heat-sensitive plate is imaged by thermal imaging technology, its photosensitive area is between 830 and 1064nm, that is, outside the visible spectrum, so
Operators can control each process under the conditions of yellow light or sunlight with ultraviolet rays filtered out, that is, bright room conditions, which improves the working environment. This is more convenient and reliable for printing factories,
And it greatly reduces the requirements of the process operation on the production environment and labor intensity and reduces the loss in production. For photosensitive plates, although darkroom operation is avoided, it is still necessary to work under red, green, or yellow light conditions.
2. Reasonable structure
At present, the CTP structure is mainly divided into three types: inner drum type, outer drum type, and platform type. The heat-sensitive CTP technology is mainly of the outer drum type, which makes the printing plate on the printing press as if wrapped in a cylinder.
In this way, the coating is outward, which minimizes the distortion of the dots, which makes it easier to handle large format printing plates.
3. High resolution
Due to the high heat transfer performance of the laser used in the exposure of the heat-sensitive plate, the contrast in the lateral position is very large during heating, which makes it easy to have differences in thermal curing between the graphic and non-graphic parts. Therefore, thermal CTP The resolution of the plate is considered to be the highest among all CTP plates, so as to ensure the quality of the printing plate and print high-quality printed products.
4. High image quality
(1) The thermal plate can ensure the integrity of information during thermal exposure, making the printing quality more stable. This is because the prerequisite for forming an image on a heat-sensitive plate is sufficient heat energy, that is, the initial heat energy threshold. Any energy value below the threshold will not produce any image on the plate, and any energy value above the threshold will not expand the area of the image already formed on the plate. This is the only technology that can control the predictable results so that the printing dots can be controlled before printing, and the fully controllable digitalization can be completely realized, so that the printing colors can be completely consistent when the plate is repeated many times, and it can break through the traditional plate making in frequency modulation crystal net, etc. High-precision printing is limited in printing and printing, resulting in higher-quality printing results. However, other CTP plates are restricted by development conditions, etc., and the dot size change is greatly affected by the back-end washing conditions, which will show corresponding fluctuations and poor printing performance.
(2) Since the heat-sensitive CTP plate is imaged by thermal imaging technology, it can restore 200 lpi, 1% to 99% of the dots, unlike the photosensitive plate, which is prone to blurring and incomplete exposure due to environmental problems, halftone dots often appear halo and other phenomena, the heat-sensitive plate has good imaging quality, high printing force, and can well restore the image level for negative or positive plates;
(3) The quality of the printing plate is high. Because the dots of the heat-sensitive CTP printing plate are solid and the edges are sharp and clear, it will make it easier to achieve the balance of water and ink during the printing, which is beneficial to dot control, thus leading to high-quality printed products;
(4) The heat-sensitive square dot technology allows FM random screening in the production environment so that the printed color is almost not affected by the color of the paper, and because the heat-sensitive CTP light spot diameter can be as small as 10μm, it can print extremely High-quality fine print.
(5) In addition, since the heat-sensitive ctp plate is exposed to a laser beam, the laser light spot is very digital just like the heat-sensitive printing plate. Combining the mesh adjustment dots generated by the two can avoid the common pair exposure in the daily production environment, development, plate making, and the slightest expansion or loss of the screen;
All of these are beyond the reach of the photosensitive CTP version. In general, thermal CTP technology and printing plates can provide stable quality, bright colors, and clear dots. This is undoubtedly a wise choice for thermal CTP for printing companies who want to improve productivity and win in the fierce competition.
5. High printing resistance
Generally speaking, the heat-sensitive CTP plate can reach more than 200,000 prints without plate-baking treatment. If it is processed by plate-baking, the printing volume can reach more than 1 million prints or even more than 2 million prints. Printing rates will not only benefit long runs but will also result in more consistent print quality for short and medium runs. The printing life of the silver salt plate in the photosensitive CTP is generally below 100,000 impressions, even if the photopolymerized plate is baked, its printing durability can only reach 800,000 impressions, which is far beyond the reach of the photosensitive CTP plate.
6. Environmental protection
Thermal CTP plates are imaged using the principle of thermal imaging technology, which avoids the use of silver salt materials in the process of photosensitive imaging due to development, washing, etc., and prevents the production of a large amount of chemical developer, which will cause serious pollution to the environment. The development and use of heat-sensitive plates without chemical flushing or treatment will further eliminate environmental pollution in the plate-making process.
7. Wider application
At present, it is generally believed that thermal CTP technology has great advantages in terms of quality, inking performance, and printing resistance, and is more suitable for commercial printing, book printing, packaging, and decoration printing, etc., especially in recent years, commercial printing The proportion is gradually increasing, and has become the subject of CTP plate consumption; photosensitive CTP technology, especially violet laser CTP technology, is more favored by the newspaper printing industry because of its faster speed.
Huida Print-All Technology company is an advanced and professional manufacturer of producing printing plates, mainly selling CTP, CTCP, and PS plates as well as offering ODM/OEMs, especially for the offset. For more information, please click the official website link here: https://www.huidaoffsetplate.com/.