Mortsel, Belgium – Drupa – 18 February 2004 – Agfa announced the launch of new :Palladio and :Galileo violet systems with higher-energy 30mW laser diodes. Current systems use 5mW lasers. The new systems will be available in April 2004. The systems will support silver plates and Agfa’s new photopolymer plate, the :N91v, which was first released to the newspaper market in June 2003. “The :Palladio and :Galileo offer full automation at prices comparable to manual thermal systems,” said Theo De Keersmaecker, Agfa’s director of CtP. “We expect that 30mW violet laser diodes will become the de facto standard for violet imaging.” Additionally, Agfa is launching a new, lower cost, manual :Palladio system. The new :Palladio system runs at 17 plates per hour. It will be shipping in May. In July, both the manual-input, and the automatic :Palladio will switch over to the 30mW laser diode. About :Palladio, :Galileo and :N91v. The :Palladio is Agfa’s 4-up (B2) flatbed platesetter that brings a combination of automation, reliability and quality in an extremely affordable solution. Its violet-laser imaging raises throughput and lowers the total cost of ownership. Agfa’s family of :Galileo violet platesetters offer convenience, reliability, quality and speed in 4- and 8-up sizes. Like the :Palladio, each model can be set in automatic or semi-automatic configurations. The :N91v is a negative-working, violet-sensitised version of the existing :N91 photopolymer plate, which is the market leading plate for 'green' 532nm laser newspaper computer-to-plate (CtP) systems. Originally launched for the newspaper market last year, the :N91v plate has improved coating technology which is sensitive to the 405nm violet diode. This allows the :N91v plate to be fully compatible with the popular 30mW violet diode CtP systems which offer unprecedented reliability, low cost of ownership and ultra-sharp imaging together with affordable system costs. Agfa’s solutions and services can be found at Drupa 2004 in Hall 06/D27.