Ken Pooley (pictured right), owner of the Melbourne-based company, told ProPrint that his company had been trialling the machine from distributor Australian Graphic Servicing (AGS) over the last two-and-a-half months.

“[AGS marketing and business development manager] Ross Gilberthorpe mentioned they were bringing the item in and we said we’d have a look at it,” Pooley said.

“He said ‘well, what if we set it up at your place and if you like it you can buy it’, which we did. So we were a bit of a test bed,” he added.

Pooley said ease-of-use and cost were major factors in BR’s decision to purchase the machine.

“The cost of standard CTPs were a bit prohibitive, whereas this one is about half the price,” he said.

The system replaces an imagesetter, burn-down frame and plate processor, which Pooley said was “getting a bit old”.

The new system will process A2 and A3 plates for its press fleet, which includes a two-colour Heidelberg SM 74, one- and two-colour Heidelberg GTOs, and a one-colour MO.

Pooley said the system has run through around 300-400 plates since being installed.

AGS’s Gilberthorpe (pictured left) said: “Ken has been very good to us in letting our potential customers come and see the system in operation. There is no better reference than that of a customer using the system.”

According to AGS, the iCtP system uses the same aluminum plate as standard conventional and CTP, but without the sensitised coating. Inkjet technology is used to create a Liquid Dot formulation on the plate to add the areas users want to be imaged on the printing press. The plate then passes through the iCtP Finishing unit to bond the image on to the plate.

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