Polymer plates? Create them yourself or outsource…

Seems like a simple matter of economics. Over a specific period of time, what is the cost of a platemaking machine (including maintenance, repair, utilities) plus cost of unprocessed plate material plus labor plus loss from error versus cost of buying warrantied processed plates from a platemaker?

Somewhat a matter of quantity of material produced or consumed. I know folks who have purchased platemakers simply to have the control, and because they had the money to do so. And for a few of these folks, more than than not, the machine basically sits idle. But they can proudly claim ownership nonetheless.

Gerald
p.s. Plus, are you absolutely sure you have all the information needed to satisfactorily process the so-called “deep relief” plates?

Edmond,
At our shop we have a platmeker and make all plates inhouse, and I would say there are many advantages, but I think the real issue is volume.
I think in order to justify the cost of a platemaker, you need to be producing quite a large quantity of plates each week.
You need to factor in not just the cost of the machine (a one time cost), but also the ongoing cost of stocking the raw polymer plate material, as well as the cost of film negatives, and perhaps most of all, your time.
All of that added up, means you have to make a lot of plates along the way in order to make your money back.
The advantages you gain are a lot of convenience. You have a lot of control over how you make your plates and how you maximaize the space on a plate. Depending on your film turnaround time, you have very quick plate turnaround (takes about 25 minutes to make a plate).
You also can reduce shipping by buying your plates in bulk once a month or whatever, rather than paying for Fedex all the time.
Run the math and get a feel for what your volume is, or keep your eyes out for a good deal on a used machine.

On this particular point, I’d have to concur with Gerald: A decision to purchase a piece of equipment such as this is mostly a matter of economics. IF a shop is going to produce enough plates to justify the machine’s cost, then a processor is the way to go. If they are only going to do a few plates then it doesn’t make good economic sense.

The real question is how many plates constitutes “enough to justify the cost of the machine” vs the cost of hand processing or farming the work out to vendors. This can only be answered by each individual shop, based upon projected usage, labor costs, and so forth.

Thank you for all your comments. I’ve been looking into the cost-analysis of owning and maintaining a low to medium end platemaker to justify the cost. However, are there any inconspicuous costs or handling issues (such as health or difficulty in production) that you are aware of? From start to finish, it takes approximately 25-30 mins to produce one sheet of 8.5”x11” polymer plate?

Thanks again!

Edmond

I’m not sure that there are any health issues involved. The waste material in the wash is safe for disposal in the sewer system. There are warnings about washing your hands afterward, avoiding ingestion or splash into the eyes. The UV generated from the lamps is dangerous to the unprotected eye. That’s about it.

Production is fairly simple as long as you follow the basic steps. You can easily ruin a plate through careless procedure, improper function of machine, poor or damaged stock, etc.

I think the time frame from start to finish is a bit on the ideal side. You have to cut the film, cut the raw material, trim the plates after exposure, etc. If you practice staggered exposure (masking, etc) that can add configuration time, etc. I think you are more realistically looking at about 45 minutes to an hour. But one can often gang plates and plates are run through a cycle of exposure, washout, drying, post-exposure, so multiple plates can be produced during the sequence.

Platemaking machines do require routine maintenance and regular replacement of certain parts, brush, bulbs, even ballasts, is expensive. You also need to buy raw material in bulk to offset costs. Unless you are doing an awful lot of processing and can get the material in massive quantities, it is going to take a very very long time for that machine to pay its way.

However, if you are primarily doing bookwork and you need the in-house control over lengthy production, then yes, no matter that you may be losing money on the machine, it may very well be worth the expenditure.

If you have a healthy commercial letterpress concern going it still may pay to outsource as the time and labor required to produce your own plates is going to cut into your primary money making activities, printing, marketing, etc.

If you are a hobbyist or print only on occasional basis, there is absolutely no point in acquiring a machine, unless you believe that by having the best toys, you win.

Gerald

In a slightly different vein: Is there any direct to plate process for photopolymer relief plates?

DBurnette

Yes, for some several years now. The plates are processed in near the same manner sans film. The ones I’ve seen have an etched surface layer that is flashed off prior to normal processing. I have not yet seen plates that are formulated for letterpress per se though (?), these are mainly for flexography at this point. I’ve processed these for a fellow and it does appear that eliminating film yields finer imaging. I don’t know that “we” will see this for a while, if ever, as this is primarily for in-house production, and the digital units are prohibitively expensive. Shipping out the digitized plates for processing is somewhat counter-productive.

Gerald

Why I devised a way to make my own is strictly timeline related and overall cost. I can burn and hand wash my plates late in the evening when the kids are asleep.

I would say I am not the norm. I like to tinker and am mechanically enclined. So using a week to get my processes into a tight pattern was work but fruitful.

It all comes down to need. Do you need it? Will you be able to pay it off in a year or two or sooner? Do you have a place to put it?