The Year of the Flexo Plate

Requiring less rigorous safety and environmental considerations than solvent wash systems, water wash plate systems can be ideal for printers bringing the platemaking function in-house for the first time. Prepress trade houses have adopted water wash systems as well. James Kadlec, owner of Advanced Prepress Graphics in Wood Dale, Ill., began using Agfa's AquaFLASH plates in late 2004. Kadlec, an outspoken proponent of film-based flexo platemaking, claims that when these water wash plates are exposed with a single point light source, they offer quality and efficiencies "equal to that of more expensive digital systems."