Is Analog’s Time Running Out?

Greater than half of DuPont’s platemaking business is digital, explains Ray Bodwell, marketing manager, DuPont Packaging Graphics. “Even the corrugated world is digital, and what has driven it there isn’t quality. Instead, it’s the nature of digital platemaking itself: it yields a very consistent dot, which ultimately means that press makeready will be easier. When you compare flexo press makeready times with offset and gravure, for example, you see that flexo makereadies were always more challenging.” This is not to say that it isn’t possible to make a high-quality plate using analog technology, Bodwell cautions, only that the flat-top, sharp-edged analog dots demand that impression settings be, and stay, precise.