Business

With the latest generation of offset presses from Goss and MAN Roland heading up to the heady heights of 80pp to 96pp, someone needed to step in with a machine to make the plates for these beasts. Screen was first out of the traps to confirm an XLF (extra large format) platesetter.

With a plate size of 2,900x1,350mm, big enough to hold 48 A4 pages to view, the Ultima is a fully automated machine, sparing anyone the trouble of handling the truly massive plates by hand. Although there won’t be that many people at the show putting in an order (Screen anticipates orders for 100 in 2008), that in itself gives an indication that there are going to be quite a few of these giant webs, which will send ripples right through the print market wherever they end up.