19 B3 Printing Plates Per Hour With OpenRIP System

RIPit Imaging Systems has installed one of its Speedsetter VM CTP systems at De Haes in Belgium.

RIPit Imaging Systems has installed one of its Speedsetter VM CTP systems at de Haes in Belgium.

The advantage of the system's internal drum structure is that the plate remains stationery and isn't subject to vibrations.

The only moving parts of the machine are the spinning mirror that reflects the laser beam to the plate and the linear motor that moves the laser beam along the drum.

The laser source is a 60Mw violet diode that is said to be cheaper and has a longer life than thermal lasers.

It gives a constant resolution of 2,540 dots per inch (dpi) - De Haes works with 150 lines per inch (lpi) to 200lpi.

Van Overbeke at De Haes said: "The Speedsetter VM doesn't use classic registration, with three points that need a lot of precision from the operator to avoid problems due to incorrect registration.

Instead it has a system of two registration contacts combined with an electronic eye.

At the exact moment the plate touches the two contacts, the vacuum system is activated.

The only task the operator must do is to watch that the lateral margin of the plate stays on top of the electronic eye.

The eye registers automatically the plate's left side position and consequently its starting imaging point." He explained: "Thanks to this system, the Speedsetter VM produces with ease 19 B3 plates per hour.

A similar four-up system, the Speedsetter VM 4 has recently been introduced and the OpenRIP Symphony program included with the machine, constitutes another plus for RIPit.

It's a powerful system based on the Adobe CPSI core that is always compatible with the newest PDF formats.

Its many functions cannot be explained in a few words, but it is enough to say that this program was No.

1 in the Seybold Publishing PDF Shootout in 2003." Van Overbeke appreciates the features incorporated as standard in the OpenRIP Symphony workflow, said RIPit.

He added: "For example, quickly imposing a series of visiting cards on the B3 printing area and the possibility to automatically calculate the ink consumption or conserving data under CIP3 files for automatic press setting permits one to save a lot of time.".

Back to top