CTP--Still Testing the Waters

Yes, United's Richards concedes, thermal technology allows longer press runs, up to a "gazillion impressions," she quips. "But the fact is, we are a commercial sheetfed operation with average run lengths between 20,000 and 40,000 impressions."

"The thermal process images much more precisely. I won't argue that under a 10,000X microscope the edges on a thermal-imaged plate are better defined than our double-YAG green plate, but let's be real. First of all, how much of this is negated by the whole process of putting a petroleum by-product on a substrate? After all, that's what printing is," Richards argues. "Secondly, our customers do not come in for their press OKs with a microscope in hand, but rather rely on a BetaView 12 to check the registration and overall quality of their jobs. To date, they're very pleased with the results we achieve with our Galileo."