Agfa is releasing its long-awaited chemistry-free direct-on-press Azura TE plates it says will ‘drastically’ reduce waste and help both the environment and printers’ wallets.

The manufacturer says as the plates are cleaned out on-press, the system does not require a processor, chemistry or water and will thus shorten time to press, reduce waste and slash energy bills and maintenance cost.

The plates, which have been in field testing the past year, behave similarly to traditionally processed and chemistry-free plates, and support up to 240 lines per inch with Sublima screening.

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Agfa head of prepress marketing Guy Desmet with says the plates clean out rapidly and immediately accept ink, resulting in sellable sheets after a few copies.

“A direct-on-press plate is ready for use after exposing on the platesetter,” he says.

“Azura TE shows an outstanding image contrast thanks to our patented Thermochromic Dye technology. That makes visual inspection easy and means that dot measurements or plate detection can be done with standard devices.

“In addition, Azura TE has an excellent daylight stability, which comes in handy if the plates cannot be mounted on the press immediately.”

Desmet says the plates are more stable than traditional products, as their R&D meant eliminating many variables inherent to conventionally processed plates.

“A one year field test period all over the globe taught us that Azura TE is compatible with all Agfa and non-Agfa platesetters, a wide range of founts, inks and press architectures,” he says.

“Customers love the ease of use of Azura TE, the gain in system productivity and the quality on press.”

Azura TE is based on the same ThermoFuseTM technology as its predecessors, working with a single-layer water-based coating, containing ink-accepting latex pearls which Agfa says are small enough to deliver razor-sharp highlight reproduction.

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