Set for the next decade of innovative prepress solutions 

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of its market-leading chemistry-free Azura printing plate, Agfa Graphics celebrated Azura users from all over the world between September 2014 and 2015. The campaign was concluded at the IGAS trade show in Japan in Tokyo earlier this month.

With the conclusion at IGAS, Agfa Graphics rounds the worldwide tour, which started a year ago with the celebration of Japanese printer Daicolo’s cumulative use of Azura printing plates of more than one million m². Over the past twelve months, Azura users from all around the globe—including Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, Dubai, South Africa, the UK, the USA, Canada, Chile, and Brazil—were put in the spotlight. Each of them received a customized celebration cake.

“Waste was a real issue for us and therefore chemical plates were a disadvantage. We wanted things simple and easy in our pre-press area. Of all the problems a printing business has, printing plates should not be one of them, and Azura has given us a trouble free run now for over 7 years.”
- Simon Carmody, Managing Director, Spot Productions (Brisbane, Australia)

“Our operational efficiency immediately improved. In addition, we strongly reduced the consumption of water and energy, which led to significant cost savings.”
- Letícia Soares, Marketing Responsible Editora Santuário (São Paulo, Brazil).

The Agfa Graphics booth at IGAS featured a range of samples of print work created using Azura printing plates, in addition to a huge infographic about the plate family, which also contained the pictures of all the cakes that were presented in the past year.
 
“Since switching to Azura TE, the image is now visible on the plate prior to roll-up and allows our pressmen to shorten make ready times, and minimize paper waste. Azura TE also helps us stay committed to our sound environmental practices while delivering superior quality.”
- Jennifer Burlington, Customer Experience Manager, Pronto Reproductions (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada)

First introduced in 2004, Agfa Graphics expanded and improved the Azura range over the years. It now consists of Azura TS general purpose, Azura TU high-volume and Azura TE direct-on-press printing plates. Every sheetfed commercial operation can benefit from the quality, productivity and environmental advantages of the ThermoFuseTM technology.

“With Azura TU, the use of developer and replenisher has been eliminated entirely and mains water has been cut by 640,000 litres. Added to this, processor maintenance has been reduced by 87% and waste collection by 95%.”
- Dax Britton, Pre Press Manager at DG3 (Gillingham, United Kingdom)
 
Convenience, stability, and a superior image contrast, coupled to time and cost savings, have made Azura the world’s most used chemistry-free printing plate family.

Agfa Graphics plans to continue down the path of innovation:

"We will keep investing in efficient and powerful prepress solutions that help our customers to achieve profitable growth,” said Joan Vermeersch, Vice-President Technology, Marketing & Business Development. “Market-driven innovation is key: our starting point are the current and possible future needs of our customers.”