What’s innovative about this product is that the ink transfer is enriched but ink-filling is minimised with its unique photopolymer technology, allowing customers to print longer impressions with less plate cleaning.

Kohsuke Uehara, sales, Toyobo said as productivity is more important than ever, the company is supporting customers with faster platemaking, improving prepress and press productivity.

For Cosmolight, the plate-making time takes less than one hour, unlike the solvent plates. Therefore, customers can not only improve pre-press productivity, but also reduce press downtime. As the plate can be processed without a hazardous chemical, total solutions with a plate-making processor from a reasonable conventional cram type to a cutting-edge inline type are available.

Uehara said the company sees the market staying slow in 2021 too, “but in countries where the Covid vaccine rolled out, we are seeing some recoveries.”

“For the future, we see processes automation and actions for sustainability as key factors,” Uehara said. “As per plate-processing, the whole process line from plate ablation to mounting will be automated in the future. As per sustainability, a solvent-free process in printing will increase its presence.”

“With this in mind, the company is developing new products to suit the automated plate-making process that have lower environmental impact not only for being water-wash, but also with the complete recycling system of wastewater.