Presstek opens gates to waterless growth

Presstek has launched a chemistry-free waterless offset plate called Zahara which the company anticipates will greatly increase the scope for the print process in the label and narrow web market.

Zahara is a thermal, non-ablative aluminum plate compatible with UV printing. It images up to 200 line screen and is specified for run lengths up to 100,000. The plate is full daylight handling.

‘Up to now converters have been limited to a choice of one plate supplier,’ says Ian Pollock, sales director EAMER at Presstek. ‘You can buy inks from multiple suppliers and now waterless plates as well. The market has long been demanding an alternative.’ It took two years to bring the Zahara plate to market after a lengthy product development process. The plate is the subject of multiple patents.

‘We understand the needs of waterless printing and designed this plate from the ground up,’ says Ian Pollock. ‘The plate carries high ink densities, displays very good contrast and sharp, clean images and text.’

Pollock says competitive plate technology requires pre-treatment with silicone oils and post-processing with chemicals. ‘The Zahara plate is entirely chemistry-free and just requires water processing. The results are no degradation of the plate between runs, elimination of variables caused by developer condition, and much simplified processor maintenance. The plate itself is easy to use and handle since there is no cover film to remove and is solvent and scratch resistant.’

Presstek estimates that processing chemistry can add between 10-20 percent to the cost of platemaking with existing systems.