#7/11: The breakthrough of computer to plate at drupa 1995 versus the automated CtP systems of drupa 2016

Drupa 1995 was the definitive breakthrough of computer to plate as replacement of the labour intensive manual plate making. After the first small steps since 1990 drupa 1995 featured professional CtP systems from suppliers such as Agfa, Autologic, Cymbolic Science, Purup, Barco, Crea, ECRM, AM Varityper and Western Litho. Together they showed more than 50 different CtP systems. Systems which varied in the application of the light source and the plate positioning. Every kind of laser and even halogen light were used in flatbed and internal or external drum imaging systems.
Where the first CtP systems used expensive YAG laser which, with its green, 532 nanometer lightsource, drupa now showed blue gas lasers. These blue gas lasers turned out to be a mistake. They often could not work for more than 1,000 hours and were the quality was not consistent for day-to-day use. These two types of laser were soon replaced by the violet laser diodes which are now common in CtP systems. Read in the 7e “Drupa Behind the Geraniums” article how CtP grow to the complete automated, environmentally friendly systems on drupa 2016.