CTP - Direct Plate Making (1)

Since Drupa 95, after CTP (Computer to Plate) became a star, many developed countries in the world have gradually changed from traditional plate making to direct plate making. At Drupa 2000, we pushed forward one step further. According to statistics, at the end of 2000, the global CTP installed capacity had reached 12,000 units. Obviously, CTP has great advantages in improving printing output, quality, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement. It is an inevitable trend in the prepress industry, and its emergence is yet another technological revolution in the printing industry.
From birth to maturity, high-tech is always going through difficult obstacles, especially in traditional industries. It now appears that CTP is technically no longer a problem. Fruit maturity is only waiting to be picked. In fact, CTP has been particularly impressive in recent years, especially in the last two years. However, the absence of technical problems does not mean that there are no problems. There has always been a contradiction between high-tech and cost and application. When CTP encountered China, the conflict became more intense.
CTP faces resistance in China
China's CTP market has become so popular with the efforts of many big-name manufacturers in the printing field and the cry of relevant media. From the perspective of the fierce competition of CTP equipment manufacturers in China, it seems that the curtain for the mass production of CTP in China has gradually been opened. There was a view that CTP will actually start in China in 2001. In fact, some survey results show that the entire domestic CTP market did not have a big leap from 2000 to 2001.
Although the use of CTP technology means higher productivity, lower production costs, faster response capabilities and stronger technical support, at present, newspaper printing companies account for a large part of domestic CTP companies. What are the obstacles to the popularity of CTP in China?
The first resistance is the relatively high initial investment. When China was still discussing CTP in 1998, each offer was between 200,000 to 300,000 U.S. dollars. The machine was bought but it was far more than this price. It required some related equipment, such as punching and punching equipment, RIP interfaces, etc., plus tariffs and value-added taxes. The entire 3 million yuan was not enough. The best traditional plate-making equipment was more than 100 yuan. That's enough. It can be seen that the CTP is twice as expensive.
The second is the issue of plate material. Plates are consumed every day. For the popularization of CTP technology, the price of plates has always been a big “bottleneck”. The plate is now about 11 to 12 US dollars per square meter, and the edition area for newspapers is 0.44 square meters. Such a plate needs 5 US dollars, plus a 19% tariff, 17% VAT, and a total of one edition. More than 60 yuan, the price is still the bulk of the price, in 1998, 1999 also more than 70 yuan. The imported PS version is generally 30 yuan, and the domestic PS version is only 20 yuan. Taking the Yangcheng Evening News as an example, it is necessary to consume 200,000 sheets of material each year. If a plate needs to cost 40 yuan more, it will spend more than RMB 8 million each year on this aspect. This has to be considered for many companies. Due to the increasingly fierce market competition, the plate making industry has become a meager industry. Increasing the plate-making cost by 50% is unacceptable for many companies. Even users who have already purchased direct plate-making machines are not all using direct plate-making machines. Output, also consider minimizing costs.
At present, the newspapers that citing CTP, such as Beijing Daily, Xinmin Wenhui, Jiefang Daily, Hubei Daily News, and Zhejiang Daily News, are walking on two legs and use traditional plates. The new printing center of Yangcheng Evening News has no traditional plate making. , must use CTP plate making, now the light plate material must be two yuan multivariate one day. Under the present circumstances, there are very few manufacturers that can supply high-quality CTP plates, but they are not available at domestic levels. The CTP plate used in China is almost entirely dependent on imports. The supply channels are narrow, and the market cannot form bulk supply. In addition, import tariffs make it even worse for the non-expensive plates. What people are most worried about is the media. The problem of one-time machine input is not big, but the plates have to cost millions more every year. (To be continued)