Vim jt plates

Have been reading a little bit on these new inkjet plates; one reviewer from drupa 08 rates them as having positive possibilities. Just wondering if anyone from this forum has actually used them? (according to VIM they came on the market in march 09). I cant actually find any company that sells them ANYWHERE on the interweb and VIM, well aren't too good in responding to emails. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

bump

 

A bit late, but visit http://www.rti-rips.com and click on CTP systems. Pricing for plates and additional information is available on the site.

 

We have been using VIM JT plates now for about 5 months. We have been very happy with their performance. We are using a Epson 7900 to print and their oversize oven and have had great success with poly and metal. Their tech support has been outstanding.

 

What temperature do you bake the plates at and for how long? Is it an over or a laminator type device? Also, do your metal plates have a purple tint before baking? After baking?

 

Follow Up

I guess I'd better follow up after my 2010 post on Vim Plates. Shortly after this post we had issues with the plates baking correctly and plate run on press. We worked with tech support for about 2 months. They sent us a new oven which did not help the issues. We asked for our money back and where told that if we sent the equipment back that we would receive a full refund. Well, after fighting with them for over 2 years after sending the equipment back, we never received a dime in refund and they quit returning or answering our calls. Word of warning, don't deal with Vim plates. They do not stand behind their product and cost me a great deal of money in lost equipment costs that they basically ripped me off for. I'm sure they reconditioned the equipment and sold it to someone else.

 

Did VIM sell to Presstek-Mark/Andy?

 

VIM was sued at one point by Presstek regarding another product related to their DI presses, I believe for patent infringement I believe is what I read somewhere if my memory serves me right. Anyway for some time ago now I know Mark Andy I believe bought both Presstek and AB Dick which I believe had acquired VIM somehow, not sure how or in what order (maybe part of the suit settlement). But Mark Andy/Presstek/ABDick now sells the JT Direct plate system. VIM going out of business could be why you had a problem getting a refund.

I have been using inkjet plates for over a year now and overall I am very happy with them. I know each one (metal, polyester and UV exposed type) each have their own quirks. The polyester and metal versions have to use K3 ultrachrome inks or newer by Epson. I have found though my own experimentation that you can use non OEM inks and refillable cartridges but they have to be pigment based not dye. But some non OEM inks may not work, fortunately I found one that does. The temperature of the plate is very important as well as the amount of ink put on the plate. A quality rip is a must, I prefer StudioRip for its speed, reliability and all necessary settings for offset prepress and inkjet fine tuning. FilmMaker is good too but slower. I had problems using a laminator and switched to an oven and 98% of our problems went away. For the poly I bake 2 minutes at 250 degrees, metal 300 for 6 minutes. The highest quality ones are the UV exposed ones - you put inkjet ink on the plate, UV expose the plate, wash off the inkjet ink and a special gelatin coating with water then develop the plate. I run 4 color process with all 3 as well as all other types of jobs. The UV metal ones print like traditional metal plates and have run lengths in excess of 100,000 impressions. The polyester is rated for 10,000 but I believe will do more if imaged/baked correctly and press pressures are correct/not excessive. The metal JT direct ones are rated at 20,000, I have the least experience with them but they do work, I was having issues with scratch like stray marks on them even though I made sure I didn't scratch them. For the poly and JT metal spend about $10 and get a bottle of RBP Hydro Clean from graphic arts supply.com to use for cleaning the plates.

 

Oh I did get a box of bad plates on the poly and my dealer replaced them and the problem went away. I have had a few plates it seems like in each box that for some reason take ink where they should not or the ink on press doesn't want to adhere to the image on the press. It is a pain but I just remake the plates. I do find though that if you use a product like Dynaclean or Quick Deep Clean to make sure you don't have any residue left on the rollers when you ink up as that seems to cause problems with the poly version. The metal UV ones are the most reliable overall but take the most amount of time to make from a production standpoint, but for the time invested in making them you get a very high quality plate that I would put up against any CTP at 150 or 175 lpi. I produce absolutely beautiful process color with the inkjet plates but I spend the time to linearize the plates, creating curves in the rip for proper dot gain, adjust the curve again for dot gain correction on press and finally tweak the curve for proper gray balance. All 3 plates can hold a 2% dot to a 97% dot based on my own personal experience. I am old school and use a Beta Industries Plate reader, and a Greytag D19C press room densitometer for making these adjustments, and I have not had a customer reject a single process color job since we went to CTP.