An alternative to poly plates.

Hey all,

I use a Ryobi 3302 with Crestlines, and I'm thinking of a possible alternative to polyester plates. They work out okay, but there have been some issues popping up. I currently get them slightly larger than can fit through the HP 5100 and I trim them down to the size I need. An issue can occur if the cutter has gone out of square - which ours does pretty often - and the plate is trimmed crooked. And more and more of our work lately seems to include photographs and big screens / halftones, which are an obvious weakness of polyester plates.

Switching to metal plates for everything would cost us some business, as many of our clients are on a budget and tend to get short runs of things (our average run for offset work is 1000-2000 copies).

Has anyone used Silvermaster plates? A friend of mine at another shop uses an AB Dick DPM platemaker and he says it was the best investment he ever made. We can't afford one of those at the moment, though, so before we even start to think about it, I'm wondering if anyone has great experience with them?

My impression of them is that they are sort of an in-between to poly and metal plates. They're cheaper than metal plates, but can match the quality. They can be used for short or long runs, but can't be archived. What do you folks think? Is it worth the investment getting one of those DPMs? How is your cost-per-plate? How do they run with Crestlines? How is the quality?

Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

- Lantz

 

I currently use aluminum on my 3302 nothing beats there quality, but I too have been searching and am testing out some 8 mil poly plates (DPM) my guy assures me that they are just as good as my aluminum plates cost is a bit less my aluminum cost is $2/ plate but that's not including my negs and time to develop em next week is when I try em out I will let you know if they are worth getting into

 

Thanks for the reply, Ziggy. Yeah, I'd imagine that your true cost per plate should include negatives, all chemical costs and the labor involved in all of it, as well as the cost of preserving / storing them. Let me know how it goes - I've heard nothing but good things so far about these Silvermaster plates but I'm extremely curious.

- Lantz

 

depending on the amount you use your press and platemaker, if its constant day in day out then fine, but if you only use it 2 or 3 times a week, youll end up throwing out more gone off chemicals and buying more than it will ever save.. you also have to pay to get rid of the spent chemicals.. dont forget to cost that in too.. i dont use plates on a daily basis, and i prefer to print film positives and make metal plates..

 

I use nothing else but Silvermaster RIII plates. I have not had any problems. I put genie plate strips on them if there is a run with critical register. I was able to run optical ballots without a problem that way.

 

Good to hear Lickety! sounds like your really getting to know your press which is great!