06/10/2026
50,000 copies. Would you consider that acceptable plate life?
When plate wear starts becoming visible after around 50,000 copies, it’s easy to blame the plate itself.
But is the plate really the problem?
Especially when printing with UV or EB inks, plate life can be influenced by several factors:
• Plate and CTP technology
• Chemical compatibility
• Dampening conditions and IPA concentration
• Paper dust and build-up on the blanket
• Pressure and rolling conditions inside the press
The choice between UV and thermal CTP technology can also make an important difference. Thermal plates generally provide a more robust solution for UV and EB printing, but the complete printing process ultimately determines plate life.
At DG press, we regularly help customers analyse technical challenges like these and optimise their printing process.
We’ve put together a technical overview comparing UV and thermal CTP technologies, plate types, processing, baking and suitability for UV & EB inks.
Read the article and download the technical overview:
https://dgpress.nl/2026/10/05/uv-vs-thermal-ctp-offset-plate-life/
And we’re curious:
How many copies do you typically achieve before you start seeing plate wear? And what has made the biggest difference in extending plate life on your press?