• New violet CTP products combine quality, reliability and low cost of ownership
• Worldwide launch to take place at IFRA India

Hemel Hempstead (19th August 2009) - FFEI has introduced two new violet newspaper CTP products to expand the Alinte News range to cover all CTP newspaper requirements from high volume dailies to local weeklies. The two new products, Alinte News VN10 and Alinte News VN20, are both semi-automatic machines giving productivity rates of 50 and 75 Berliner plates per hour respectively at 1016 dpi. The new products, which have been inspired by FFEI's success in the Indian market, will have their worldwide launch at IFRA India on the Fujifilm and TechNova stands.

"Indian newspaper circulations continue to grow, a trend which is totally opposite to the battles raging in most other countries for readership and advertising dollars," states Charlie Seccombe, Commercial Manager at FFEI. "There has also been a recent influx of International titles in India which has acted as a catalyst for quality improvements across all titles. We have responded to these trends with two new machines. They not only have the FFEI hallmark of quality and reliability but come at a fantastic price point."

The Alinte News VN10 is an entry-level, internal drum CTP solution that is ideal for smaller newspapers and contract printers with a maximum requirement of 50 Berliner plates per hour at peak deadline times. Its variable plate size, up to a maximum of 765 x 686 mm, combined with internal drum accuracy and optional resolutions up to 2540 dpi, give VN10 users optimum flexibility to output plates for both newspaper and semi-commercial work, including heatset.

The Alinte News VN20 produces 75 Berliner plates per hour and has a maximum format of 1070 x 850 mm, making it suitable for a wider range of applications including the production of panorama plates with two broadsheets side by side. The optional resolution set (1800, 2400, 2438 and 2540) provides commercial and heatset as well as newspaper capability.

Both new products are designed with Semi Automatic plate loading and single-laser exposure to ensure reliable operation and low cost of ownership. They are compatible with a very broad range of low chemistry and chemistry-free violet plate technologies and can be configured to be freestanding or online to a processor. In the latter semi-automatic mode, full communication with the processor is supported to optimize productivity.

"Our key design criterion for the Alinte newspaper CTP range has always been flexibility, confirms Seccombe. "The Indian newspaper market is the fastest growing in the world and with growth there is always change. We now have a full range of CTP solutions that can match the needs of the future as well as today.

"Violet is the accepted CTP technology in India. With the two new Alinte models we have responded to feedback from potential customers and made this technology affordable to smaller printers. The total range, including the fully automatic Alinte VN30 and VN40, now offers the same attributes of quality, reliability and cost-effectiveness to small local, regional and or multisite national newspapers alike."

The Alinte range is available in India nationwide through FFEI's partners Fujifilm and TechNova.

ENDS