DI Technology Positioned to Lead

A Presstek executive offers insight into direct imaging developments.

Staff -- graphic arts online, 3/1/2001

Presstek, Inc. is the leading developer of thermal direct imaging (DI) and associated printing plate technologies for the graphic arts. GAM recently spoke with Efrem Lieber, vice president of sales, marketing, and customer support for the Hudson, N.H.-based firm about developments in plate imaging, plates, and other technologies.

GAM: How does Presstek's DI technology compare to competing technologies in the same market space?

Press as peripheral

Lieber: Everything is predicated on our vision that the printing press becomes a computer peripheral similar to the printer on a person's desktop. In envisioning that, the technology must be compact, extremely reliable, and have a very low cost of ownership in the long term.

GAM: Why do you believe a DI press is more beneficial than computer-to-plate (CTP) or conventional technologies?

Lieber: Technology gets accepted on the basis of economics. Our eyes can get glazed over by the incredible advantages of one technology over another, but what it comes down to for printing companies is whether or not they can make money with it as well as be more efficient.

Turnaround is key

With DI technology, not only do printers eliminate steps of making one plate at a time, but they're now making all the plates at once. They're not making them in some far-off place and then having to process them; they're all done right on the press and automatically. So they have saved more time and materials than CTP technology is able to afford, and makeready is faster as well. More than anything else, the key to DI is fast turnaround-the ability to make more jobs in less time and get through a job more quickly.

GAM: How important is it to users that the same company develop both the imaging device and the plate?

Lieber: The marriage of lasers and media is critical. Either the imaging device is invented first and a material is made to fit it, or the developer begins with a material and invents an imager that works with it. Regardless, the end result is that they need to be compatible. To use one example, the Quickmaster DI press only works with the imaging system and the printing plate that we provide for it in the environment Heidelberg has created.

What we excel at is bringing together this new imaging technology to the printing press. These two components have never been compatible before, so our focus is the merging of disparate technologies to make a new and better technology.

GAM: What are the advantages of Presstek's exclusive internal press cylinders with automated loading capability?

Lieber: We've shown press manufacturers, who are the experts at making cylinders for printing presses, a very efficient way to change plates rapidly. If the need is for fast turnaround, rapid makereadies, and efficiency, this puts the printing plate in a safe place directly inside the press in a very compact scenario.

Thus, users are able to make plate changes very quickly, image them on press efficiently, and then operate the press without interference. Again, it's a real-world example of combining press manufacturer prowess with our expertise.

New laser subsidiary

GAM: What was behind Presstek's decision to form its new Lasertel subsidiary?

Lieber: The decision followed a very successful Drupa show for us last year, and was based on anticipated increased demand for our products, particularly those equipped with our new FirePower laser diodes. Incredible growth in laser technology has been realized with regard to telecommunications; Presstek saw a strategic need to secure its supply of lasers at prices and quality levels consistent with our objective to proliferate DI technology at the lowest possible cost.

GAM: Presstek is partnering with toner-based Xerox. How will ink-on-paper complement Xerox's existing product lines?

Lieber: We provide certain benefits that toner-on-paper technologies cannot, among them higher volume. Second are higher quality levels, which toner-based systems are getting better at but still are not up to the quality levels of offset print, especially color. Third, toner-based systems cannot compete with the speed at which we can make pages, which we also do at lower cost and higher quality levels.