Good short-run CTP

[The Mancunian]

Hi everyone,
I work for a company that has outsourced printing for years and has finally decided to bring it in-house. We are currently looking for a CTP to make polyester plates to run on some ABDick 9910s (or 9920s, I forget which ones) to print short run (100-2000) 1 or 2 color jobs and the occasional long run of 40-60000 (which I know I'll have to re-image poly plates on those jobs) . The bulk of the work will be solid text, but there will be also be the occasional screened image we'd need to run as well. We'll also be applying thermography at the same time.
We looked at using a digital duplicator like a Riso or Standard, but the quality wasn't good enough for our application, so decided to go with the ABDick press instead.
I've done a lot of searching on these forums, and from there have looked into some various plate makers. I'm currently getting pricing on a Xante Platemaker 5, as well as an ABDick DPM 34HSC and a Mitsubishi Eco 1630. So far the Xante is winning in price, but I know that you often get what you pay for. I like the fact that the Xante is chemical free, but don't know how well the plates will hold up on the press.
Any recommendations as to which platemaker we should go with? Image quality is a huge factor.
Thanks for the help!
Verdant

You could try looking at the new DPM 400 Pro that has just been released by Presstek.

Its a roll fed machine made to replace some of the older model DPM machines they had.

[hpage]

I have an HP 5200 that just died after a couple of years of relatively light use. My IT folks won't even touch it, so the cheap price doesn't seem so cheap now that I have to replace the printer.
Good points: Cheap, small, good opacity on film.
Bad points: Fixing it costs as much as buying a new one, fuser isn't hot enough for poly plates (pronto), need more than standard memory, USB cable isn't fast enough (though it worked better with mac snow leopard).

[TJPrinter]

I would agree with some of the others here to get some sample imaged plates and give them a try first. I'm confident that you may think that the toner based plates are ok, but you will love the silver based plates. I think the big questions is not which machine you should buy but which plate technology will work the best for you. I run AB Dicks here and have never had a job that my Digiplates (Megapro) could not handle with the right RIP and trap software. I have not had good luck with any of the toner based plates. I'm curious about the VIM JT plate system, it sounds very interesting. Good luck.

[printerdw]

Not a dealer I work in a College inhouse shop.

[Brett S]

We are currently running a DPM 2340 and QP 25 with a T-head (our plan is to replace the QP25 with a used Printmaster). The DPM was installed in 1999 and still has the original Printers RIP. We considered replacing the RIP for about $5000 but because of the mechanical issues we have had with the machine (banding on the plates, the plates are breaking down, etc.), I think we need to consider a new/used device.
We have spoken to a few used equipment/new equipment companies and here is what we are considering:
- RIPIT- Speedsetter 300- both used and new
-DPM - used or new
-VIM JT
-Misubishi ECO- ?

We briefly considered a used Vector 52 but have not had much luck finding one.
This thread and several others seem to speak well of the RIPIT in general, but not sure about the 300.
I would love to hear any thoughts you might have about any of the above devices.

[prepressing]

Brett,
Do you plan on running just poly plates or are you also going to run metal?

[Brett S]

Due to cost I assume we will land on Poly, unless one of the below metal options is really affordable.

[jdaghir]

We've got the RipIt 300 and we're pleased with it. Simple, reliable, has a robust rip based on an a genuine Adobe interpreter. The imaging unit is small enough that you can ship it via ground, so if you do have problems with it you can ship it to Xante for repair as opposed to paying for a service tech to come to you. Personally I think it's the best bang for the buck in poly plate makers.

[prepressing]

We are a dealer. Just thought I would throw that out there since there have been some questions about who is a dealer and who is not.

To be honest all of the machines you have listed would probably be a good choice for poly. We do not sell the Mitsubishi/Screen equipment, but have heard good things about their devices. Customers of ours with Screen PTR devices love them and the machines themselves seem to be very reliable.

I would definitely agree with most of the other comments on this site - it is very important to get samples plates and run them out on your press just so you can verify the quality and confirm that they will meet your needs.

[sallak]

i'm a commercial printer too, u lost me here guys, please start over with me.
i got ABDick 9870, planning to use polyester plates for it as most jobs are of 1000 to5000 max
got HP laserjet 5000 A3 size, what else do i need? where i can get the polyester plates that fits, what other materials required, and no i'm not from US.