Technical Information

In this era of slim margins, what is the most pressing need for businesses? Cost reduction and efficiency improvement are likely the answers for most businesses!

If you have been using traditional washout plates, is the reason simply because that's how it's always been done? It's time to stop and examine your business. Switching to waterless plates may bring unexpected surprises and make you realize it's necessary—especially when you see that change brings higher efficiency, simplifies work, and makes everything more timely.

Kodak Sonora XTRA plates overcome the limitations of other waterless plates. Sonora XTRA plates offer all the advantages of waterless platemaking, plus faster imaging speeds, better image contrast, and more robust processing, transforming your printing operations.

 

XTRA Clarity

Sonora XTRA plates offer three times the image contrast of Sonora X. Users can easily see the finest image details on the plate.

 

XTRA Speed

Sonora XTRA plates are compatible with even the fastest direct imagers, allowing users to unlock greater potential from existing equipment or upgrade their CTP for higher printing capacity.

 

XTRA Robustness

A stronger base and durable coating make Sonora XTRA plates extremely durable and easily adaptable to any printing environment. Coupled with Sonora XTRA's superior scratch resistance, users can run their presses at full speed.

 

XTRA Long Print Length

Sonora XTRA plates can meet the needs of most printing plants currently using non-baked plates. On rotary presses, the print length can reach 400,000 impressions; on sheetfed presses, 250,000 impressions; and for UV ink applications, 100,000 impressions.

 

Reduce Waste and Save Significant Funds

With Sonora waterless plates, you can completely eliminate plate washing, including all associated time, chemicals, water, energy, costs, and variability. Reduce the environmental impact during prepress and printing and save money.

 

Environmental Savings

By eliminating the need for chemicals and water in prepress and reducing electricity consumption, Sonora plates significantly reduce environmental impact, helping users meet local regulations and attract environmentally conscious printing customers.

• No more need for any washout chemicals, disposal, handling, and transportation.

• No more water needed to wash plates in the plate processor, mix concentrated chemicals, or clean the processor.

• No more energy needed to run the plate processor.

• No more waste in the plate room due to variability or plate defects caused by washing. Faster preparation and higher dot stability also reduce waste on the press.

01. Your business needs to grow cost-effectively

     

In a challenging operating environment, you may be particularly focused on the short- and medium-term growth goals of your business. If you want to expand your business, you need to reduce the time employees spend on unnecessary tasks and focus on high-value-added work such as increasing production capacity. By eliminating the plate processor, employees can focus on the work itself without being bothered by platemaking issues. With waterless plates, employee efficiency will significantly improve, positively impacting profitability, printing consistency, and high-quality output.

First, waterless plates help produce better prints. Kodak Sonora Waterless Plates They have very stable printing performance, and because they don't use chemicals or water, the chances of printing defects are lower. This will strengthen the user's quality control, help them provide high-quality products to their customers, ultimately satisfying existing customers and attracting new business.

Second, waterless plates can improve efficiency. Because waterless plates do not use chemicals or water, they can be processed faster than traditional washout plates, which helps achieve higher print volumes, reduce plate preparation time, and reduce paper waste. With this, jobs can move quickly from prepress to postpress, greatly improving efficiency. With faster output, users will be able to meet customers' increasingly demanding turnaround time requirements, further improving their satisfaction. Customer satisfaction will have a crucial impact on customer retention and help tap into new business opportunities from existing customers.

Kodak waterless plates can also save significant costs. In previous platemaking processes, a lot of money was spent on electricity, water, and chemicals. In addition, users can also reduce the costs of equipment maintenance, equipment cleaning, and handling used cleaning solutions. Since cost savings vary by printer, use the Kodak Sonora Plate Savings Estimator to calculate how much you can save your business by switching to waterless plates.

The transition from traditional plates to waterless plates is also very simple and convenient. Users do not need to change any settings or parameters on the press; only the press operator needs to slightly adjust their plate handling habits.

 

02. The hidden costs of traditional plates are rising

      

Even in stable economic times, traditional washout plates still incur many hidden costs. Defects during plate washing can lead to plate remakes and related costs, as well as losses due to delays, press downtime, and paper waste.

For example, chemical costs are increasing due to rising prices in the supply chain, manufacturing, and distribution. At the same time, the cost of raw materials used to make traditional plates, such as aluminum, is also rising. The cost of skilled labor needed to produce traditional plates is also increasing, and the electricity and water costs required for the production and processing of traditional washout plates are also soaring.

With the continuous improvement of digital printing technology, the demand for traditional washout plates is expected to decline.

Given all of the above, using traditional washout plates will become increasingly difficult—while waterless plates, with their cost-effectiveness and efficiency advantages, are the best choice.

 

3. You need to free up manpower for other areas

      

Today, companies of all types face pressure to increase efficiency and reduce costs. A viable solution is to redeploy personnel to work that brings greater value to the business. Waterless plates offer significant help in achieving this goal.

Traditional platemaking processes involve a lot of hard work and are extremely time-consuming, such as the need to regularly drain and thoroughly clean the platemaking machine; this alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars more than waterless plates. With the advent of waterless plates, this hard, time-consuming work has become a thing of the past.

Waterless plates can also be used with Kodak's automated CTP innovations, including Kodak Trendsetter and Ultra Trendsetter Q800 direct imagers . At this point, the platemaking process can be unattended, allowing press supervisors and other employees to handle other tasks, creating greater value for the business.

As the number of plates that can be automatically loaded, imaged, and unloaded in a day increases, so does the number of jobs that can be handled. This will free up your employees' time to use their talents on higher-value work. Therefore, this will help increase revenue potential—another benefit beyond cost reduction.

The printing environment is constantly evolving and changing rapidly. The advent of waterless plates allows printing companies to improve efficiency, improve print quality, and simultaneously redistribute and optimize their workforce, allowing businesses to easily cope with various changes. Switching to waterless plates is also very simple—once the above signs are found, it can be easily transformed and easily implemented.

 

The brilliance of the Kodak Sonora solution lies in the nature of its waterless plates, which are not only more environmentally friendly but also genuinely save costs. Sustainability and cost are not always compatible—either sustainability wins or price/value wins, but Kodak Sonora waterless plates achieve a win-win, which is difficult for other sustainable solutions in the printing department to achieve.