Thermal Plates Keep Minimise Waste And Pollutants

London (UK) commercial printer Purbrooks is using Fujifilm's thermal processless plate, Brillia HD Pro-T.

London (UK) commercial printer Purbrooks is using Fujifilm's thermal processless plate, Brillia HD Pro-T.

One of the primary reasons for using the plate is Purbrooks' environmental commitment to keeping its business waste and pollutants to a minimum.

Based in Wimbledon, Purbrooks moved to a new 14,000 square foot production facility where it runs its two Heidelberg B2 presses with coaters and a digital Xerox DC250 press.

The move has enabled the firm to offer a one-stop shop service by providing design, print, finishing and storage on one site.

The company, established in 1896 and employing 30 staff, specialises in the supply of literature to the corporate sector.

Jan Prokop, managing director of Purbrooks, said: "Our commitment to the environment means that we are obliged to look in to any new developments that might lessen the impact our business makes on our surroundings.

We recognise that all of us have a role to play sustaining a clean environment.

For that reason, we decided that we had to assess the viability of going down the processless plate route with its obvious environmental benefits in terms of eliminating chemicals and waste." Purbrooks trialled several processless plates but found Fuji's Pro-T plate imaged faster and had a sharper image with less dot gain, said the company.

Prokop explained: "Our final decision to go with the Fui plate was based on the fact that it had no adverse affect on the productivity of our Screen Platerite 4300.

In addition, our previous experience of using conventional Fuji plates meant we could rely on them performing well on long runs." Fuji's Brillia HD Pro-T is claimed to be a true processless plate in that it needs no chemistry or gumming and can be imaged using the same power as Fuji's existing thermal processed plate at 120mJ per square centimetre, resulting in the same production speeds.

Said to be compatible with most thermal (830nm) platesetters and approved for one per cent - 99 per cent at 200 lines per inch (lpi) conventional, 300lpi hybrid and FM screening, Brillia HD Pro-T is a non-ablative plate that carries a latent image with contrast allowing visual inspection after imaging.

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