Offers Higher Maintenance Convenience and 40% Less Waste. IFRA, Barcelona, Spain – 15 October 2002 – Agfa announced the commercial availability of the Ultra generation of its Lithostar Violet digital plate for newspaper CtP. The new Lithostar Ultra plate has excellent wash-off properties and much wider latitude in processing and printing, making performance on press highly reliable. And greater plate stability results in fewer plate remakes. The Lithostar Ultra system includes Ultra developer, Ultra finisher and Concept7 waste reduction benefits. Processor waste is reduced by 40%. "Lithostar Ultra has greatly benefited our customers in commercial printing as well as newspaper CtP using FD:YAG lasers," said Kurt Smits, Agfa’s newspaper business manager for Europe. "The upgrade was the next logical step, a matter of listening to customer demands to upgrade the world’s fastest growing digital plate for newspaper printing." About Lithostar Ultra. The Lithostar Ultra generation is a complete system including plate, developer, finisher and enhanced processing. The Ultra developer has wider exhaustion latitude, which allows it to work at maximum strength for a longer period of time. This saves users both time and money by having to change chemicals less frequently. Concept 7 processing minimises waste by reusing finisher to wash off plates. This keeps processors cleaner, making them easier to maintain. About Violet Technology. Agfa introduced Violet-laser CtP at Drupa 2000 for commercial printing and at Ifra 2001 for newspapers. It offers fast imaging speed, low cost of ownership and unparalleled reliability. It has been embraced as the technology of choice for today’s demanding CtP environments by hundreds of users in both commercial and newspaper printing.