CTP silver salt plates and the localization of kits gave us enlightenment

The computer-to-plate printing technology (CTP) was called by the world printing industry as the "third printing technology revolution." It exports digital pages directly to the plate with a laser scan. It takes only 2 minutes from platemaking to printing and 25 times faster than laser photocopying. It also has the advantages of high printing quality, low cost, and reduced pollution.

Ten years ago, China introduced the first CTP equipment. The required plates and kits were all imported, and they were expensive. They couldn't be supplied continuously. “Now” lived in the neck of this high-tech popularization. It was the research group of the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences led by Professor Chen Ping that the CTP Materials Research Group quickly seized the opportunity to establish the first computer-directed plate-making material production line for hard-base coated silver halide in cooperation with the newspaper office of Shantou Special Economic Zone to solve the urgent needs of the country.

Opportunity favors prepared people. As early as the 1990s, the research group conducted exploratory research, accumulated profound research foundations, solved a number of key technical issues, and completed the transition to industrialization.

In 1995, when computer-to-plate printing technology was first introduced by American companies at the Drupa International Paper and Printing Exhibition in Germany, it immediately caused a stir in the world printing industry. The task group is bright and aware that the core of this high technology is to use the principle of silver salt diffusion and transfer, which is a combination of its own professional characteristics, just as its own scientific research goals.

The research group conducted a comprehensive survey and analysis of the main representative products, reviewed almost all relevant information, and learned that the earliest and most mature silver salt plate in foreign countries has a five-layer structure. The task force did not copy the five-layer plan, but based on catch-up, the silver salt plate technology plan was identified as three layers.

In 1999, the research group produced the first CTP plate for newspapers in the darkroom by hand and printed it in China Standard Press and Beijing Daily. In 2002, Zhongke Industrial Co., Ltd., established in cooperation with the newspaper office in Shantou City Special Economic Zone, built China's first silver salt CTP production line. Since its formal production in October 2005, it has been successively provided to 14 newspaper companies with strong timeliness to fill gaps in the domestic market.

Comments: The localization of CTP silver salt plates and kits can be completed with relatively little money and in a relatively short period of time. There are four main reasons for this: First, to capture and track information in a timely manner; second, to analyze foreign products. Based on the structure, based on catch-up to determine their own technical solutions; third is to solve the five new issues in the new materials, new processes, and have their own intellectual property rights; Fourth, not the world.