ColorDynamics Masters the Dot with Agfa’s SPIR@L Screening and Energy Verve

ColorDynamics is one of the largest full-service printers in the Southwest, offering innovative graphic communications and turnkey services that exceed their clients’ expectations.

ColorDynamics’ need for a robust thermal printing plate prompted the company to evaluate Agfa’s (Booth C8130) SPIR@L screening and the Energy Verve printing plate. SPIR@L harnesses dot gain, requiring less ink and resulting in higher-quality images with the finest detail and brightest colors. 

A new way of thinking about dot gain

“SPIR@L offers a big shift in how we, as an industry, consider and manage dot gain,” explains David Dey, vice president of manufacturing. “Instead of working to minimize dot gain, the SPIR@L concept works in reverse.”

SPIR@L screening is simple but brilliant. The traditional dot is replaced with a more economical SPIR@L shape. This means it requires less ink to fill in the exact same space, resulting in a crystal-clear image every time.

A 10 to 20 percent reduction in ink

“We see a 10% to 20% reduction in ink, which is substantial over the course of a year,” states Dey. “It’s come without any decline in quality.”

Dey explains, “We find that the ink interaction with the image screening increases the latitude for success. And that is a huge deal, especially in web printing when attempting to achieve the quality levels of sheetfed printing.” With SPIR@L, quality isn’t compromised regardless of press speeds, thus improving productivity while significantly reducing waste and overall costs.

SPIR@L and Energy Verve offer many positives for ColorDynamics

“For us, SPIR@L screening with the Verve plate means the sum of the two together is much greater than each part individually,” clarifies Day.

Energy Verve is a durable, negative-working, thermal photopolymer plate specially designed for extreme conditions, such as printing on abrasive stocks, or printing with UV inks or opaque white inks. Robust and highly sensitive, Verve offers exceptional chemical and mechanical resistance with run lengths of up to 1 million copies without post bake, while consuming 50% less energy.

Verve reduces potential problems

“Energy Verve’s deep graining structure offers a better ink and water balance, which is one of the biggest challenges with our previous plate,” notes Dey. “From start-up to sellable sheet, we use less paper, less ink, have fewer challenges, less variability, and the process is more consistent.”

“The number of variables creates a huge challenge for controlling color; it is critical to have stability and repeatability in the plate,” continues Dey. 

Verve helps simplify the process

 “Verve affords a higher level of consistency, and also handles the variability with fewer outside manipulations from the printer. We can do more things with fewer changes across the board, and we can get to a very high quality that we couldn’t achieve with the previous products we used. Agfa is a good partner with our business,” Dey says.

The ColorDynamics team combines decades of experience with the latest technological solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of their clients. The combination of SPIR@L screening and Energy Verve positively impacts ColorDynamics capabilities and their bottom line.