Showing the Digital Way--Alex Hamilton

With automatic plate changers and makeready systems, it's currently possible to do complete changeovers in less than 20 minutes on many sheetfed presses, and the same capabilities are now being implemented on webs.

Basically, I have two huge reservations about on-press imaging. First, given the huge investment in this type of equipment, why would anyone want to keep such a piece of capital machinery idle? Second, even if on-press imaging is as fast as an automatic system, why would you want to have a plate-manufacturing system that only works on a single device? For me, I would invest in one or more off-press imaging systems and then feed plates to all of these devices.