東レ水なし平版の現状

Abstract

Ten and a few years have passed since the very unique “Toray Waterless Plate” with an ink repellent silicone rubber layer was in use in the market. In the initial stage, Toray Waterless Plate was very much expected to eliminate the dampening system from offset printing process entirely. But it was only accepted in some certain specific applications because there were some problems in its plate itself and systems. Nowadays, however, these problems have been solved by the improvement of plate itself and the development of optimal waterless printing system. And it is widely used mainly in general commercial printing field on from small offset presses to large sheet-fed, web offset presses.Now printing industry has faced a lot of problems to be solved-quick delivery of prints, small print lots, serious shortage of young operators, appearance of new electronics technology in entire printing process, competition with other information medias and etc. As a solution of these problems and an effective measure to improve the productivity and reduce the total cost, the use of Toray Waterless Plate printing system continues to have been enlarged not only in Japan but also in overseas market.