DIGITAL PLATES -- Shortcutting the Process

One company looking to possibly buck that trend is PDI Printing Developments Inc. in Racine, WI. In its quest to develop a processless plate, the company discovered a polymer surface technology that enables fast (typically two minutes or less), one-step processing, according to Tom Bevan, director of sales and marketing. This first led to the introduction of its Eclipse plate (500,000 impressions with no baking), and now a next-generation version, Delta 830 (1 million impressions with no baking), which was slated to be introduced at Graph Expo 2003.