Speaking to PrintWeek India, Jayant Pardiwala of Nippon said the CTP market in India has matured and Indian pre-press service bureaus and commercial printers are either opting for UV CTCP systems or thermal platesetters.

In the current market scenarios, however, there is a tussle between these two technologies, considering their investment costs and running costs. For example, the investment cost for thermal platesetters may be less, but it has higher running cost. On the other hand, the investment cost of UV CTCP is high, almost double, compared to thermal, but the running cost is comparatively low, as it can use PS plates.

The companies, which purchased Cron UV CTCP from Nippon Color, are Aurangabad’s Shree Mauli Process; New Delhi’s Bharati International; Rajkot’s Colors Print Pack; Lucknow’s Fine Graphix; Kolkata’s Balaji Printing Solution; Bhopal’s Box Corrugators & Offset Printers; Ambala’s Ideal Solution and Meerut’s Soniya Printer Scan.

Pardiwala said pre-press service bureaus are investing in CTCP purely because of its low plate cost. “Even today, PS plates are around 30% cheaper compared to thermal and violet plates,” he said, adding, “Printers who are using more than 2,500 plates per month and printing maximum 250 lpi have also opted for UV CTCP technology so that they can save money on plates.”

On the other hand, in packaging segment, customers are opting for thermal technology because of its high run-length and quality.

The companies, which purchased Kodak thermal CTP from Nippon Colour in the last six months, are Mumbai’s Vakil & Sons; Mumbai’s Sahaya Print Services; Siliguri’s Vista Prints and Surat’s Progressive Printing Press.