DRUPA 95 and DRUPA 2000 have generated a great impact on CTP development in China. In 1996, just one year after DRUPA 95, Optronics became the first company to successfully ship its platesetter to China and installing it in a local publishing house. By 2001, just one year after DRUPA 2000 more than 60 installations of platesetter were confirmed in China. This is, however, only a very small fraction when compared with over 10,000 installations worldwide.

People have been complaining that the imaging machine and plate are too expensive. High price leads to high production costs and slow return of investment. Besides price, what makes people confused is the huge number of possibilities which are offered in imaging and plate modes. Thermal laser imaging has been portrayed as the best, but faces significant challenges from the newly emerging UV laser imaging.

On the other hand, CTcP is pushing hard by highlighting the appealing future of imaging conventional PS plate. Imaging media is more complicated. Only for thermal alone , there are pre-heat type, no pre-heat type, ablation type and phase changing processless types. It is really difficult, if not impossible, for local printers to come to a conclusion on which mode of imaging and plate will survive with the fast changing technology and lead to long term returns on its investment. Waiting is safer in such a changing and unclear environment.

An insufficient digital environment, a lack of a relevant and effective way of management could be blamed, but this was ignored or viewed as not significantly related. Quite a number of people, even leaders in the industry do not really understand how important these two conditions are for CTP to make a full play. They simply think that platesetter and plate will easily offer the CTP solution.

A survey[1] disclosed that by September 2001, the total number of installations was 61 and more than half of it was contributed in the first 9 months of that year. A follow up survey[2] was conducted after the half - year in March 2002 and this revealed that the total number increased to 85, an increase of nearly 40% within 6 months. Based on this tendency, another 30 installations are anticipated by the end of this year and the total number of installation will be over 100.

References:
[1]'CTP in China ', LIU Ji-Ying, Printing Tech.(Chinese), 31, 9(2001)
[2]'Who will be tomorrow s buyer for CTP', JIAN Jie, et al, Printing Manager(Chinese), 1, 61(2)

Agfa's Polaris platesetter coupled with silver plate has earned a great reputation and market share in newspaper printing, because of it's fast output speed. Creo is overwhelmingly strong in commercial printing and its Lotem and Trendsetter coupled with thermal plate from KPG are very competitive. Creo, Agfa and Heidelberg are the top three and shares over 2/3 of the market. Guanghou, Shanghai and Beijing are currently major destinations for CTP shipment. Among them, Guangzhou stands top with 35 installations, equivalent to 57% of the total installations nationwide by September 2001.

Several reasons are cited as an explanation. Among them, the high price of the imaging machine and plate stands top. The market price for platesetter is between US$100,000 and US$500,000 and that for plate is around 100 RMB/m2 (equivalent to about US$12), about 2 to 3 times higher than conventional PS plate. It is not justifiable for a printer to spend such a large investment on introducing expensive platesetter which must be fed with expensive plate, while its CTF and paired exposure frame still work well with cheap film and PS plate.

Further more there has no market need, from the view point of business development, that CTF must be replaced by CTP. People wait until high value added comes into their sight when introducing CTP. Lack of digital environment and effective way of management are other obstacles. In CTP production, every thing is digital before the plate is processed and no intermediate physical media exists anymore, which may provide a way for visual or instrumental checks. This implies that a new way of management and control, digital workflow and management, and new way of proof delivering etc. must be in place. All of these are new, not easy to conventional printers and require new knowledge and expertise.

The level of production integration is also a factor which cannot be ignored for successful CTP production. Makeready cannot be as long as before as platemaking process is greatly shortened to the minute. This requires integrating all steps of production in a seamless network, in which digital information of operation, parameter settings, control commands and feedback singles are shared, analyzed and implemented automatically without personal interference. The industry is largely far behind this level of integration, though fast progress is being made.

When asked what were the obstacles in expanding the application of CTP, about 34% printers quoted high price of imaging machine, about 16% pointed that technology was not mature enough, about 15% added lack of funds and about 10% answered lack of paired facilities, which would imply CTP plate, digital environment, tool and expertise of management relevant to CTP, digital proofing equipment etc. These were the top four obstacles.

When asked when they thought was the best timing in introducing CTP, about 36% printers answered that they would wait until prices came down, about 31% responded that they expected further improvements in technology and about 23% said when CTP plate was locally produced and supplied. Only a small fraction of about 5% printers indicated that they would purchase CTP, when the imaging machine was locally produced and supplied.

A local joint venture company called Beida Huatong Hi-Tech Co. Ltd debuted its first version of platesetter BH-3000 with financial support from the central government and technology support from Beijing University. Old generations of BH-3000 were either equipped with green laser or red laser, offering three resolutions, i.e., 1024, 1540 and 2794 dpi, and were designed for imaging silver plate. The latest generation is said to be equipped with a thermal laser head capable of multi-beam scanning at a minimal spot size of 10 micrometer.

The company claims that the price is only 1/3 to 1/2 of similar products offered by overseas companies. This is very attractive to most local printers. Founder is another company, which integrates and supplies total system of CTP, including imaging machine and workflow. The system is produced on an OEM basis, with the machine imported and the workflow developed by Founder. About 10 systems have been reported installed nationwide up to now.

A quite number of institutes and companies are believed to be engaged in CTP plate development. Thermal laser imaging plates and violet laser imaging plates are the two major directions. Some of them are at the verge of product announcement and some of they are already in massive production. Nanyang No.2 Film Factory debuted its first generation of thermal CTP plate in ChinaPrint'01 in 2001, the largest international graphic arts show in China.

The plate was sensitive to high power laser light at 830 nm and needed pre-heating before processing. The company is pushing hard to upgrade its thermal CTP plate and will release the second generation, which needs no pre-heating before development. The company is also reported to have finished lab work on developing thermal plate of no processing (i.e., processless plate) and UV photosensitive polymer CTP plate for UV-LD imaging (400~410nm).

The Chinese Academy of Printing Technology established a joint venture with Fuji Film and the joint venture planed to start producing CTP plate in China in 2003 or 2004. Agfa is also reported to locate its CTP production in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, but no time-table is available. KPG upgraded its representative office to an independent company and started construction of its first CTP production factory in Tianjin this summer. Construction will be finished by the end of this year and production is scheduled by next March.

Locally made platesetter may not be as competitive as foreign made products, but the situation will change if companies like Creo, Agfa etc. move their CTP assembly line into China or export their technology to Chinese companies. Availability of locally made plate will greatly stimulate the desire of purchasing platesetters and produce a leap forward in CTP development in China.