About Us
Since 1908, three Directors have been specialists in the supply of quality photographic materialto the offset and carto printing trade.
From the days of direct litho, then offset through to digital printing, we have been serving the needs of the printer, leading the field with novel innovations and inventions as highlighted below.
We have survived two World Wars, numerous recessions and the advent of the computer age to bring you up to the minute, state of the art products required for today’s discerning printer.
1908 Pumice Powder for litho stone; graining powder for zinc plates for offset printing
1920 Inks for offset printing
1926 Paste driers and ink for bronzing powder used for gold colouring of cigarettepackets
1932 Formulation of deep etch coating for the imaging of zinc and copper plates
1936 Co-polymerising of P.V.C. and acetate film to produce Astrafoil, a montagesheet for printing multiple images onto an offset plate.
1948 Astrafoil produced in commercial qualities to take over from glass for printersto use in planning and assembling his negatives or positives
1950 Obtained Trademark for use of the word Astrafoil
1952 Formulated multi-image photomechanical printing onto Astrafoil using dyes also used for colour proofing process on Astrafoil
1953 Introduction of Drawing Ink for use on Astrafoil sheets in the permanentdrawing of maps, charts and diagrams.
1955 Astrascribe revolutionises mapping, scribing, security designs, producing contourlines of polyester. Introduced as a one-time use montage sheet. Manufactureof scribing instruments for drawing contours, road lines and other detailsrequired in the mapping process.
1956 Diapos Introduction of diazo photo-mechanical coating on film to facilitate registration when producing offset plates following the separation of colour transparency.
1958 Astrastrip – a removable red coating on film for masking out unwanted parts ofan image before production of offset printing plates.
1960 Polyester – the introduction of Polyester film as a substrate for adhering Negatives and positives
1964 Super Astrafoil – an extremely stable drafting material by combining the advantages of Astrafoil with the strength of Polyester used for drawingsrequiring extreme stability (such as Concorde).
1965 Projector Screens and Tooling – this company was set up to produceengineering drawings, tools and screens using Astrafoil and Astrafoil reproduction techniques.
1966 Drafting Foil – a matt coating coated onto Polyester for the draftingof maps, charts and planning as well as lofting design. We also supplied a range of inks and dyes for use with drafting foil material.
1968 Montage Blue – a polyester coated registration film to facilitate accurate registration of multi-layer images in the production of offset printing plates,also supplied in red.
1969 Masking Red – a laminated adhesive red membrane for blocking out unwanted images in areas of photographic film.
1970 Astrascan – the first digital scanning material for use on the electronic Klischograf produced colour separated images electronically.
1972 The introduction of the Pre-Sensitised Stripmask process used incartography for the photographic production of multiple masks.
1974 Astrafoil Neg Proof Process – a quick process achieving colour proofs to check alignment of charts and maps.
1976 Polyproof – a polyester coated material for producing quick colour proofs for checking photographic colour separations
1984 Dianeg – a polyester coated versicular film producing a dense photographic image utilising heat as a developer eliminating the use of silver nitrate.
1988 Astrafilm – a dense photographic film used on photographic image setters top produce a scanned photographic image
1990 Astralite – a 2mm wafer flat screen producing transparencies viewing light at 550 kelvin giving a correct colour rendition for viewing photographic transparencies
1998 Synplas – we took on the agency from Nan Ya Plastics Corporation in Taiwan for the supply of synthetic polypropylene paper for use in outdoor applications where tough or waterproof images are required.
2000 Astrasten – a screen stencil produced on a CAD knife cutting machine producing a rapid stencil for poster work, nameplates etc.
2002 The introduction of coated adhesive Laminates in various finishes for the overlaying of posters to give long life protection and eliminating reflections
2005 Ink Jet – the introduction of coated water proof ink jet material coated onto Polyester and Synplas material for use in poster and advertising applications.
2006 Polymer Base for use in the flexo industry in the production of flexo rubber stereos as well as supplying mounting film for flexo plates.
2008 Label Stock – laminated Polyester and Synplas producing hard wearing waterproof labels with both permanent and semi-permanent adhesive
