The XPose! machine is now available through its network of marketing partners worldwide.
Based on the technology employed by more than 850 XPose! thermal platesetters in production world-wide, Lüscher AG has developed a new exposure head using high-performance violet laser diodes which first became available at the beginning of last year.
With a power output of 140mW, they project so much light onto the plate that inexpensive and hardy conventional printing plates can be imaged just as quickly as thermal plates, the company says.
“Violet laser diodes have a very long lifespan but they are expensive which is why the XPose! with laser diodes is about a third more expensive than thermal platesetters,” says a spokesman.
“That additional price is compensated however by the low cost of conventional plates since the more plates produced by a printing house, the quicker the amortisation of the additional price and the platesetter as a whole.”
A positive-working 8-page plate can be exposed by a UV-Conventional platesetter with 64 violet laser diodes in only 124 seconds.
“More than 20 manufacturers around the globe today produce more than 60 different types of conventional offset plates. Since last autumn Lüscher has tested 25 of those plates and found only four to be unsuitable. Accreditation of the plates begins this month, in conjunction with plate manufacturers.”
The first two XPose! UV conventional units have been working in German printing houses since early January and a further 19, already ordered will be delivered by the end of April.
