Currie Group brings new B1 Cron to ANZ
The ANZ industry’s biggest equipment supplier, Currie Group, is bringing the new Cron B1 platesetter to market, promoting its quality output, ease of use, and ease on the wallet.
Cron has now released a higher specified version of its B1 system, the Cron 46H+, which Bernie Robinson, managing director of Currie Group, describes as a “cost-effective, precision quality, high-production platesetter.” The target market is general commercial printers.
The new Cron 46H+ has a new appearance design, an integrated output device, what Robinson says is a user-friendly control interface with a brand-new touch panel operation, which according to the company, “brings a more friendly human-computer interaction experience.”
The laser is square dot imaging, achieved by the adoption of optical technology, delivering says Cron an accurate reproduction of dots with minimum error rate ≤1 per cent.
The plate making resolution range includes 1800/2400/2540/2800 dpi, with the Cron 46H+ suitable for AM, FM and Hybrid screening at more than 300 lines per inch, with 10-micron FM screening print. Printers can configure it for different combinations of speed against high-resolution, by specifying the number of laser beams.
Higher resolutions, all the way up to of 9600/10160 dpi, can be specified, which Cron says means “exquisite printing.” A high precision built-in online punching device, comprised of up to five sets of punch moulds can be installed.
Cron was actually established back in the 1990s, with the H and G series introduced five years ago. The Cron CTP units range from B3 up to VLF formats. The new 46H+ is firmly in the B1 camp.
The 46 H+ is an external drum platesetter than can accept plates up to B1 size, but can also accept B2 and B3 format plates. It has a new autoloader as standard, and can take up to 200 B1 plates in unattended operation, with automated slip sheet removal.
The company says plate-to-plate registration accuracy to within 10 microns is achieved thanks to a patented side gauge. Cron has developed a maintenance-free laser head carriage, which incorporates a linear magnetic drive, Cron claims this gives a positional accuracy of +/-0.01mm, on a self-lubricating v-shaped guide rail.
The revised and beefed-up H+ series comes with new manual and autoloading configurations.
Cron says the new platesetter works with any current plate type, as users have a choice of auto-focused laser channels, in 48, 72, 96 or 128 thermal 830nm, or UV violet. Square dot imaging is optional.
The beams operate at speeds that will output between 24 to 48 plates per hour, with the actual output speed a result of whether the internal punches, are used – up to five sets can be fitted.
The Cron 46H+ can be integrated onto any existing workflow through its Laboo front-end software.
According to Robinson, the Cron platesetter has a lot of high precision features that ensure it delivers consistent quality output, but at a cost point that represents a saving on more established brands.