The Great (Digital) Plate Debate

Also, he reports that existing no-bake plates require pre-baking in order to achieve good chemical resistance on press, so the elimination of the pre-bake step in second-generation visible-light technologies is a significant advancement.

Printers are buying these "true" no-bake plates because "they want to get rid of their ovens," Butera adds. "No-bake plates are also a natural choice for smaller sheetfed printers who tend not to have the floorspace for ovens (not including a gum rinse unit, in some cases, as well). Also, when the oven is eliminated, so is the electricity needed to run it, as well as the air conditioning that is required to quickly cool the room back down to its normal temperatures. Those reasons alone are compelling enough for printers to consider no-bake plates."