Japanese Flexographic Printer Kindai Bijyutsu Co., Ltd, Upgrades Flexo Platemaking With Solutions From Asahi Photoproducts

April 25, 2022
Asahi CleanPrint, Asahi Flexo Plates, CTGA Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Platemaking, Flexo Plates, Flexo Printing, Flexographic Printing Plates, Water Wash Flexo

Japanese Flexographic Printer Kindai Bijyutsu Co., Ltd, Upgrades Flexo Platemaking With Solutions From Asahi Photoproducts

Re-post from Asahi-Photoproducts.com

Water-wash flexo plate processing delivering cleaner print, fewer press stops and flexographic printing in harmony with the environment

Tokyo, Japan & Brussels, Belgium, April 20, 2022. Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development and a subsidiary of Asahi Kasei, today reported that Kindai Bijyutsu Co., Ltd, headquartered in Okinawa, Japan, has acquired an Asahi AWP™-2530 AA – All-In-One water-wash processor for use with AWP™-DEW CleanPrint water-washable flexographic plates. The company produces labels and flexible packaging for a wide range of customers in the food industry. While Kindai had already been using water-wash plates, the company chose this solution due to improved performance with the AWP™-DEW CleanPrint water-washable flexographic plates, including plate accuracy with precise registration, excellent ink transfer, reduction in press stoppages due to plate cleaning, and elimination of the need for washout solvents.

” We are very satisfied with the print quality resulting from our Asahi AWP™ water-wash platemaking system,” commented Ms. Emi Oshiro, CEO of Kindai Bijyutsu Co., Ltd, “as well as with the stability it delivers with both our water-based and UV inks. As the need for package printing that is in harmony with the environment increases day by day, this acquisition positions us to deliver the highest quality products with even more reliability.”

CleanPrint in Harmony with the Environment

Asahi´s CleanPrint water-washable flexographic photopolymer plate technology’s ability to deliver high quality print performance is a result of its engineered photopolymer chemistry design. The water-wash technology also features a low surface energy plate resulting in fewer press stops for plate cleaning for significantly improved OEE in the pressroom and reducing press waste. All of these elements make them the most sustainable flexographic plates in the industry. In addition, AWP™-DEW CleanPrint plates deliver extremely high-quality print due to their precise registration and ability to deliver perfect printing balance between highlights and solids.

Read more at Asahi-Photoproducts.com

Asahi OEE Reloaded. A Handy Video for the Flexo Printer

February 2, 2021
Asahi CleanPrint, Asahi Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates

Improve your print production capacity by up to 1/3 by just changing your plate!

Asahi Photoproducts has published a brief, educational video that provides a simple but effective explanation of the value to a flexo plant of calculating, monitoring and managing the operation’s Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) percentage.

The video also links to a simple-to-use OEE calculator that allows owners and managers of flexo operations to calculate OEE using their own data.

“Over the years, Asahi Photoproducts has published much information about OEE and the role our plates can play in improving a flexo operation’s OEE percentage,” says Dieter Niederstadt, Technical Marketing Manager of Asahi Photoproducts Europe. “Although not rocket science for many operations, the OEE concept has remained complicated and how to actually calculate it a bit obscure. There was no handy explanation for a quick and easy calculation of the OEE specific to flexography for a specific operation or press. With the release of this video and our easy-to-use OEE calculator, this all changes. Now, the meaning of OEE for flexo operations and how they can determine the operation’s OEE is no longer obscure or complicated.”

In Asahi’s experience, customers who simply switch to Asahi CleanPrint water-washable plates can improve their print production capacity by up to 1/3 with little requirement for change in the overall plant workflow. This was learned both from customers with long run jobs as well as customers with frequent job changes. As part of calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) of prepress and the pressroom in a flexo plant, OEE is a significant factor. “Many operations limit their view by focusing mainly on the cost of flexo plates,” Niederstadt adds, “but once you examine the operation more holistically as you calculate your own OEE, you will note that the cost of plates is actually a significantly smaller percentage of the overall picture than you might have realized. The value gained by improving OEE boils down to the ability to increase throughput of sellable finished product while reducing waste, making it easier to meet the tighter production deadlines imposed by today’s brands, who are anxious to improve their time to market.”

To better understand how OEE applies to the flexo industry, how it is calculated, and the impact of improving it, view our educational video here. Then download the OEE calculator, and you’ll be on the road to improved overall performance and profitability!

Bringing Pre-Press Home: Closing the Gap in the Printed Package Value Chain

December 2, 2020
Asahi CleanPrint, Asahi Flexo Plates, Asahi Pinning Technology, AWP Water Wash, CTGA Flexo Plates, Digital Flexo, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plate Mounting, Flexographic Printing Plates

As digital technologies progressed in offset, the printing industry saw a rapid migration of plate making from outside resources to on-site production.

The same thing is positioned to occur in flexography, as technology has evolved to streamline and simplify the plate making process. Flexographic converters in the labels and packaging space are in a growth business. Still, they face a number of challenges in a highly competitive marketplace. At the same time, they confront challenges from alternative technologies such as offset and gravure printing. Customers are increasingly looking for shorter and more varied runs, faster delivery times, and, of course, a competitive cost structure. Plus, the interest in a more sustainable environmental footprint on the part of brands and consumers is growing.

There are a number of technological developments underway in flexography that will help flexographic printers meet these tests and retain existing customers while also acquiring new ones. One such development is being demonstrated through the Turnkey Project, hosted by Comexi, in which Asahi Photoproducts is a partner. The Turnkey Project is designed to demonstrate the value of bringing flexographic plate making in-house to flexible packaging converters. Today’s technology makes it easy.

For the flexographic printing operation, bringing plate making in-house is one way to improve operational efficiency by providing more control over the cost, scheduling and timeframes for making plates. It also makes it faster for replacement plates to be made when required, reducing press downtime and keeping jobs running through the plant more efficiently. But in the past, making high-quality flexographic plates could be tricky, deterring many printers from bringing the operation in-house. This project demonstrates how that is changing.

Beyond this project, our industry is focused on bringing even more automation and operational efficiency to the flexographic prepress process, adding to the contributions already made to improved quality, profitability and sustainability.

The faster and more efficiently a press-ready print form can be generated, the more flexibility a plant will have in what it can produce. But as always, quality is a key consideration and must be balanced with efficiency for a holistic approach to the process of producing press-ready print forms.

By removing even more manual touches from the flexographic plate making process, we will be able to deliver a more efficient and profitable prepress process, as well as a high level of standardization through automation, thereby reducing the skill level required for operators in an environment where skilled prepress operators are often hard to find.

Among the resulting benefits, the process speeds production times, allowing companies to produce more jobs in a day with the same or less labor, while simultaneously reducing the opportunity for costly errors along the way. That’s the vision the next generation of flexographic prepress solutions will be about.

Turnkey Project Details

An important milestone on the route toward this vision for Asahi and several other industry partners is our participation in the Comexi Turnkey Project at its Manel Xifra Boada Technology Center in Girona, Spain. The project features water wash equipment and water washable plates with CleanPrint technology. Water wash processors are generally considered to be more in harmony with the environment than conventional solvent systems. Many, in fact, credit them with producing plates that achieve the highest level of quality in flexographic printing.

In addition, the water wash process is much faster than solvent. While it may take up to two hours for solvent-based plates to dry, Asahi’s complete AWP plate making process, serving as one example, delivers a plate to the mounting department in less than one hour. That same example plate is specifically engineered to transfer all remaining ink to the printed substrate, reducing makeready time and press cleaning stops.

The Manel Xifra Boada Technology Center—Comexi CTec—specializes in training, advice and technical process support for the printing and converting sectors of the flexible packaging industry. It has incorporated into its portfolio this new service, whose objective is to help flexographic printing operations integrate the prepress process, from ground zero, into their own facilities.

The project culminates once the client independently completes the prepress process while adhering to all defined quality standards. The estimated time to complete the project is approximately six months.

Word on Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

In any industry, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a measurement of the performance of a machine. It’s a calculation—OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality—that delivers a percentage. OEE is a fact-based way to measure the efficiency of your operation and identify ways to continuously improve it over time.

Print production inefficiencies can occur due to a combination of elements, such as printing shift length, press makeready time, press stop downtimes, actual press speed, run lengths and total material waste.

The OEE calculation provides focus and simplicity to decision making, in respect to availability, performance and quality produced. Having measured all three elements, a focus for improvement in the OEE percentage figure can be established. The higher the OEE percentage is, the more effective your printing shop becomes. The higher the OEE, the better the impact is to the bottom line. Plus, inherent in a higher OEE is an increase in customer satisfaction and retention.

Calculating OEE is not rocket science; it’s easy to understand and involves calculating press availability, performance and quality. For more information on the calculation of OEE, request an easy-to-use OEE calculator by contacting CTGA today.

FFP Packaging Wins Best in Show At the EFIA Awards 2020 Using Asahi AWP Flexo Plate Technology

October 7, 2020
Asahi Flexo Plates, AWP Water Wash, CTGA Flexo, CTGA Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material

Tokyo, Japan & Brussels, Belgium, 7 October, 2020 – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, is delighted to congratulate its customer FFP Packaging Solutions as winner of ‘Best in Show’ at the recent EFIA Awards 2020. FFP’s entry won Gold in the category ‘Flexo on Film – Reverse Print Wide’ using Asahi’s AWPTM-1.14 plates to achieve the high quality results. FFP’s entry ‘Juicy Meat Company, Large Beef, Easy Cook Pouch’ was acclaimed for superior design and excellent quality printing in CMYK, achieving exceptional density in the black areas alongside perfect soft highlights.

Paul Hesketh, Print Development Manager at FFP says, “Everyone at FFP is absolutely delighted to have won this year’s ‘Best in Show’ at the EFIA awards.”  As a leading flexible packaging innovator and converter with 50 years experience, FFP is unique in comparison to many other companies in their sector as they produce their plates in-house. Hesketh explains, “To take control of plate production we needed to find the best plate technology and a supplier and partner we could work with. Our relationship with Asahi supports our strategy to provide consistent high quality products. We purchased Asahi’s AWPTM 4835 water-wash plate processor around 5 years ago and Asahi supply us with the raw polymer so we can manufacture plates in-house. We decided to produce AWPTM-1.14 plates  after extensively researching the market, we found that Asahi plates gave us consistent and excellent quality results every time, with good ink lay-down and superior ink densities – perfect for very high quality work and challenging designs. The results we are able to achieve with this plate are so good, we offer them to our customers under our ‘Platinum Print’ brand.”

The print team at FFP Packaging Solutions quickly recognised the technical difficulty in achieving soft highlights and strong vibrant colors from the CMYK on challenging designs such as the winning entry.  The design on the Juicy Meat Company pack is predominately a dense black with contrasting lighter shades in the product images. To produce award winning designs FFP also has to focus carefully on its color management processes – they use IQC color management software and X-Rite spectrophotometers to measure digital tolerances.

Hesketh continues, “We have a great design and color management team at FFP but at the end of the day, high quality results are a lot to do with the plates and the way we set them up.  The success of the end product is down to achieving the correct balance with the plate, the ink system and the anilox and the key objective is to perfectly match the proof. We found the AWPTM 1.14 plate offers excellent quality and color consistency when used in conjunction with solvent based ink systems on our Windmöller & Hölscher high speed Miraflex Printing press.

All FFPs award entries are selected from the production Print that come off their presses on a daily basis. There is no special preparation made to produce an award winning piece of print. Hesketh explains, “I regularly see great print coming off the end of our presses and think – I’ll keep that.”  These samples build up throughout the year and when its time to send the entries for the awards, Hesketh and his  team review and select the best and the most appropriate print from the samples.  Hesketh works on the principle that everything they produce for their customers is top quality and good enough to win an award.

Hesketh concludes, “We take awards seriously.  Within our industry we regard EFIA as the most prestigious organisation.  We have been members for many years and won many awards but it was very satisfying indeed this year to receive their award for ‘Best in Show’.   Working in-house is fundamental to FFP maintaining the highest levels of quality products in a challenging and ever evolving market.  To do that we had to carefully consider our choice of technology partner.  We chose to partner with Asahi and use their AWPTM plate 5 years ago and we are still winning awards with it. We did look at other suppliers but we are very glad we went with Asahi as we believe their plate technology is top class.   We strive to be the best and use the best equipment available which is why we use Asahi’s AWPTM plates. Our competitors can’t compete.”

Asahi Announces New AFP-Leggero Flexo Plate For Corrugated Board Applications

March 30, 2020
Asahi CleanPrint, Asahi Flexo Plates, CTGA Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates

Super-soft and smooth plate results in no board crush, fewer flute marks, good ink density, for the ultimate in post-print flexographic quality

Tokyo, Japan & Brussels, Belgium, March 26, 2020 – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, today announced the availability of a brand-new flexographic plate. Asahi AFP™-Leggero CleanPrint plates have been specifically designed for printing on lower quality low-liner corrugated board. This super-soft plate delivers kiss-touch printing without board crush, good ink density with reduced washboard effect, and is ideal for simple brown-box corrugated applications such as fruit trays and single-color logo type printing.

“With the growing use of corrugated board packaging around the globe, brands and retailers increasingly seek ways to increase quality appearance and protect their goods at the same time,” said Dieter Niederstadt, Asahi Photoproducts’ Technical Marketing Manager. “Asahi’s AFP™-Leggero flexographic printing plates deliver both higher quality and better protection of the product by not damaging the corrugated box flute structure. This is a very new approach inside Asahi, not only to focus on print quality aspects, but also to add value for protection of the packaged goods. Our ‘Just Kiss. No Crush.’ tagline reinforces this quality and protective result delivered by Asahi AFP™-Leggero CleanPrint plates. In addition, as with all of our CleanPrint plates, the Leggero plates ensure less waste, fewer press stops for plate cleaning and consistent exceptional quality throughout the run, the hallmark of Asahi’s CleanPrint flexo plates. We expect packaging converters will be able to achieve up to 15{402c2385650ceb937fc5dfccd4761ceed5dd330756c4d730d625389f210d2cf9} improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) when they use these plates for corrugated post-print, delivering a solution in harmony with the environment.”

CleanPrint plates from Asahi Photoproducts have been specifically engineered to transfer all remaining ink to the printed substrate. The AFP™-Leggero CleanPrint effect is achieved because of the soft plate base material. The result is very clean printing. Another important benefit of Asahi’s CleanPrint plates, including AFP™-Leggero, is that they do not need to be cleaned as often as conventional digital solvent plates. Reduction of plate cleaning stops creates a significant productivity improvement as well as more consistent quality.

“With AFP™-Leggero’s soft-touch kiss printing,” Niederstadt added, “not only is the historical problem of board crush and washboarding virtually eliminated due to the softness of this plate, but there is also virtually no dot bridging and good ink laydown. That means that areas of solid colour as well as highlight areas are clean and crisp, as are fine lines and smaller type. This is the ideal plate for corrugated board post-print and will enable packaging converters to broaden the range of applications they can produce for customers, especially those that are not willing to sacrifice quality.”

Hamilton Adhesive Labels Reduces Makeready Time By 30% With Asahi AWP

September 24, 2019
Asahi CleanPrint, AWP Water Wash, CTGA Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates, Flexo Printing, Flexographic Printing Plates

Incredibly Consistent Technology and World-Class Quality

Tokyo/Brussels, 23 September 2019 – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, today reported that Hamilton Adhesive Labels Ltd., a leading converter of printed and plain labels for the food & drink, industrial, automotive, personal and household care markets with an annual turnover in excess of £12 million, has chosen Asahi AWP™ water-washable flexographic plates with CleanPrint. Hamilton operates from a 40,000 square foot manufacturing and warehousing facility centrally located in Bardon, Leicestershire, with a dedicated team of more than 65 people focused on product and service excellence.

Upon joining the company in 2016, Operations Director Paul Larkin, an industry veteran with more than 44 years of experience, was tasked with helping to make the business more sustainable and to identify low-cost changes that could have high productivity impact using his Measurement and Control philosophy, designed to deliver a predictive system that ensures “right first time” performance with world-class quality. He then formed a Formula One (F1) pit stop team tasked with optimizing productivity based on the new predictive system. He states, “Unless you can demonstrate a level of quality, the market is limited for any company.” Over his first year, Larkin examined every phase of the flexographic printing process, including flexographic plates, seeking ways he could improve it.

Larkin tested a wide variety of flexographic plates in his search for the perfect plate, testing them with thousands of meters of print. The ultimate choice was the Asahi AWP™ water-washable plates with Asahi CleanPrint, provided via the company’s repro house partner, Creation Reprographics.

“There is nothing out there like the Asahi AWP™ plates,” Larkin states. “They deliver a great tonal range and the dots are very stable.” He notes that ink on standard flexographic plates can be drawn to the shoulder of the dot, which can have a significant impact on running speed with frequent plate cleaning stops. “Using Asahi AWP™ plates with CleanPrint, it is completely different,” he explains. “The ink is somehow drawn to the tip of the dot, and the press is able to print continually without stopping for plate cleaning. It’s an incredibly consistent technology with world-class quality. It’s been a vital element of our quest to ‘get print right the first time!’”

Award Winning Performance

Not only has the company achieved a reduction in makeready time following its conversion to Asahi AWP™ plates with CleanPrint, but quality was also significantly improved as evidenced by awards its output has achieved. These include an EFIA Gold Award in the promotional category for a Crystal London label and the two Flexotech awards Best Print and Supreme (Best in Show) Awards. “This is the first time we have won this king of awards,” Larkin proudly reports. In presenting the award for Best Print, the judges stated, “Incredible vignettes to paper white, smallest dots ever seen in flexo, sharp text and high colour density. A superb promoter of flexo.” This praise was echoed in the judges’ statement with regard to the Supreme (Best in Show) Award: “We’ve been impressed at first glance; and the more we were checking the quality, the more we were convinced to be looking at a really ‘first in class’ piece of work.”

Benefits Of Asahi CleanPrint

Asahi CleanPrint is designed to facilitate kiss touch printing pressure. Lighter printing pressure ensures constant repeatability of printing quality during the production run as well as longer plate life. This characteristic is achieved with unique Asahi-engineered photopolymer chemistry that reduces the surface energy of the printing plate and enables better ink transfer to the substrate during printing.

CleanPrint has the beneficial effect of reducing ink filling in the mid-tone area during the printing run, leading to fewer cleaning intervals and shorter press downtime for a highly sustainable flexographic printing process. Dr. Dieter Niederstadt, Asahi’s Technical Marketing Manager, notes, “Our customers, including Hamilton Adhesive Labels, are ecstatic about the quality of print they can deliver while also benefiting from reduced makeready time and improvement in OEE.”

Bright Future Ahead

Larkin sees a bright future for Hamilton Adhesive Labels and for the industry at large. “At Hamilton,” he says, “the combination of high quality printing components, including plates, inks and more, in combination with a sustainable company culture that operates from a Measure and Control philosophy with dedicated and talented employees on our F1 team, is driving the quality and price/performance of label manufacturing beyond that of any other printing technology available in the market. We are pleased to be working with Creation Reprographics and Asahi Photoproducts as critical partners that are helping us achieve our goals, win those prestigious awards, and look ahead to even more advances in the future.”

Asahi CleanPrint – Clean and in balance with the environment

August 26, 2019
Asahi CleanPrint, Asahi Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material

Re-post from asahi-photoproducts.com

As regulatory agencies around the world place more stringent focus on environmental sustainability, Asahi Photoproducts continues to innovate platemaking technology with a solution that aims to produce plates in an office-type environment, processing photopolymer reducing VOC’s into the atmosphere. CleanPrint plates use less ink, emitting fewer VOCs in the pressroom. There is less makeready waste and waste due to plate cleaning press stops, adding even more environmental sustainability to the process. And more efficient throughput means less energy consumption. Not only does this help with regulatory compliance, it creates a safer, cleaner work environment for employees.

In fact, CleanPrint plates can be produced in an office-type environment, processing photopolymer without introducing VOC’s into the atmosphere.

GOLDEN ERA RECOGNIZED WITH AWARD FROM FLEXOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA, USING ASAHI AFP-TOP PLATES

August 13, 2019
Asahi CleanPrint, Asahi Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates

Re-Post from Asahi-Photoproducts.com

Tokyo, Japan & Brussels, Belgium, December 14, 2015 – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, is pleased to announce that its customer, Golden Era, is a 2015 recipient of the Flexographic Technical Association of South Africa’s (FTASA) Best of Show Print Excellence Award. The company was recognized for packaging it produced for Kellogg’s Coco Pops using Asahi AFP-TOP plates. Asahi customers walked away with a total of seven awards.

The FTASA Print Excellence Awards have been held in South Africa since 1997; first under the auspices of the Institute of Packaging and later independently. This competition focuses on printing quality and not innovation, design or origination, although the printer’s skill in implementing these is taken into consideration. A total of 23 companies entered the competition with a total of 166 entries which were spread over 10 categories, many of which were subdivided into line and tone and process working. Some categories, like paper, were further subdivided into coated and uncoated. A total of 51 awards were made. The judges set their standards very high and any blemish or mark, poor transfer, less than perfect register or non-compliance with the requirements are bases for rejection. Magnifiers are regularly used to examine dot integrity, ink lay down and -transfer.

With respect to Golden Era’s Best of Show award, the judges commented, “The multicolour registration issues created by the design for this entry are well-handled. Smooth and even gradations, fine highlight dots and good solids with solids and halftones on the same plate are all achieved with water-based inks. The Kellogg’s Coco Pops print was therefore judged ‘as close as you can get to perfect.’”

Another Asahi customer, New Era Labels, reaped two Gold awards. With regard to the Nola Tangy Mayonnaise Dressing shrink sleeve entry, the judges commented, “The entry achieves excellent ink laydown, particularly for the gold.” They also applauded the smooth, fine highlight
dots. “Smooth fine highlight dots is one of the differentiation factors making a difference between Asahi Pinning Top Dot plates and plates from other manufacturers,” said Dieter Niederstadt, Technical Marketing Manager for Asahi Photoproducts, “largely as a result of the inherent capability of Asahi plates to deliver High Definition Clean Transfer of ink.” The award of a second Gold medal to New Era Labels for its OK Soup Powder package demonstrates this point, with the judges praising the density of all of the colours and “magnificent, clean positive type.”

In addition to the above awards, the following entries printed using Asahi plates secured medal awards.

• Ellis Brown Creamer 1Kg – Silver Award – AFP TOP (Golden Era Printers)

• Spar White Onion Soup 65g – Silver Award – AFP DSH

• Lux Wake Me Up 400ml – Silver Award – AFP TOP (New Era Labels)

• Kellogg’s Fruit Loops 350g – Bronze Award – AFP TOP (Job moved from Litho to Flexo) (Golden Era Printers)

“Print quality has historically been a focus for this prestigious award,” says David Galton, Asahi European Sales Director. “It is that print quality that is helping to accelerate growth in flexographic printing, bringing flexo quality on a level with offset and gravure. We are honoured that our plates played a role in enabling Golden Era and other Asahi customers to be recognized with these awards. It is especially rewarding in light of the stringency of the judging criteria.”

Asahi’s solvent-washable AFP-TOP flexo plates embody a unique design that ensures the highest possible quality print with the least amount of press downtime. Its Pinning Top Dot Technology ensures exceptional print performance and enhanced press profitability, as demonstrated by the quality of Golden Era’s submission.

DS SMITH RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS EUROPEAN AWARDS FOR EXCEPTIONAL QUALITY IN FLEXOGRAPHY

August 13, 2019
Asahi CleanPrint, Asahi Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates

Re-post from Asahi-Photoproducts.com

Tokyo, Japan, & Brussels, Belgium, June 29, 2016 – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, today congratulates its customer, the DS Smith plant in Fulda. DS Smith, a leading display & packaging supplier, is the recipient of two prestigious awards from the FTA Europe Diamond Awards. The company was recognized with a diamond first in the Super Wide Web Flexo Print on Paper category and also Best in Show due to the outstanding printing quality for its pre-printed liners produced for Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG. The inaugural FTA Europe Diamond Awards ceremony was held at the Hyatt Hotel in Düsselsdorf, 2nd June 2016, during the drupa 2016 exhibition.

The FTA Diamond Awards recognizes companies that have been Gold Award winners in their respective countries. DS Smith had achieved gold in a category of the EFIA UK awards in March and was then put forward to participate in the FTA Awards.

“We submitted printing samples for pre-printed liner we created for Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG. These images were printed in very high quality that compares favorably with conventional offset-printed packaging,” said Steffen Blankenburg, print production manager at the DS Smith plant in Fulda.

In producing the packaging, DS Smith strove to achieve a close match to the brilliance normally achieved with offset printing, but using fixed color palette 4-color flexography. “The challenge was to reach high brilliance comparable to offset printing. We were able to do this through a combination of the prepress expertise of our well qualified employees and the quality enabled by using Asahi’s AFP-TOPTM plates with Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer.” added Jan Brandtner, plant manager at DS Smith Pre-Press Services GmbH.

“This terrific achievement was the result of a very fruitful collaboration between Asahi and DS Smith over the last six months,” said David Galton, Sales Director for Asahi Photoproducts. “We are proud to have been part of this process and extend our hearty congratulations to DS Smith for this prestigious recognition.”

More than 200 like-minded individuals from across the European flexographic community came together to celebrate the best of flexography during the event. In addition to well-deserved recognition of exceptional performance, it was an ideal opportunity to celebrate the vibrancy and competitiveness of flexography whilst providing a perfect forum for colleagues to network.

UNIFLEX ADOPTS ASAHI PHOTOPRODUCTS FLEXOGRAPHIC PLATES FOR HIGHER QUALITY, IMPROVED EFFICIENCY

August 13, 2019
Asahi CleanPrint, Asahi Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates

Re-post from Asahi-Photoproducts.com

Tokyo, Japan & Brussels, Belgium, 24 January 2017 – About eight years ago, Belarus-based Uniflex began its journey to enhance quality and competitive advantage through the use of fixed colour palette printing (also called Extended Colour Gamut printing), using a fixed set of inks to replace most, if not all, requirements for spot colour inks. Uniflex is one of the largest flexographic printing companies in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eastern Europe. The company offers a wide range of high quality flexible packaging such as vacuum bags, pouches, sachets, roll packaging, and self-adhesive labels in up to 10 colours and using a variety of materials.

“We saw fixed colour palette printing as the next milestone in quality and efficiency for flexographic printing,” said Eugen Lungin, Production Manager of Uniflex. “We worked to assemble a suite of industry-leading solutions to position us at the forefront of modern printing techniques to better serve our existing customer base and to expand our global footprint. Our partnership with Asahi Photoproducts was essential to our success in achieving these goals.”

Uniflex chose to use Asahi’s AFPTM-TOP and AWPTM flexographic plates with Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer, finding them to be the ideal plate choices for Full HD Flexo production. “Our customers have strict requirements relative to the quality of their printing,” added Eugen Lungin. “We are always striving to take advantage of the latest innovations in flexography in order to meet and exceed customer expectations, and fixed colour palette printing is definitely one of those innovations. High quality, eye-catching, yet functional packaging is what our brand owners are looking for, and plates from Asahi Photoproducts are a vital enabler for us to achieve that and more.”

Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer is a unique plate technology specifically engineered to transfer all remaining ink to the print substrate due to the photopolymer plates having a lower surface energy than other plates on the market. It is an ideal technology for fixed colour palette printing. Not only does this deliver stunning graphical quality, but it also

improves overall production efficiencies due to reduced make-ready waste and fewer press wash-ups. In fact, independent testing reflects that Asahi plates with Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer deliver at least a 26% improvement in Operational Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).

“We began our fixed colour palette printing journey with Asahi’s AFPTM-TOP plates after a thorough market review, and found they had the best and most consistent ink transfer from start to finish during production runs. We subsequently added AWPTMwater-washable plates to take advantage of their precise plate-to-plate register, fast platemaking time and environmental benefits to round out our plate portfolio, for the best of all worlds in fixed colour palette flexographic printing.”

“Uniflex is a delight to work with,” said Martin Wohlschlegel, Sales Manager Key Accounts and Emerging Markets at Asahi Photoproducts Europe. “Their dedication to quality and environmental sustainability, and their heritage of innovation in the flexographic printing process, sets them apart and bodes well for their future success. We look forward to an ongoing relationship that is mutually beneficial.”

“With the implementation of fixed colour palette printing and our use of Asahi AWPTM and AFPTM-TOP plates,” Eugen Lungin concluded, “we not only have the cost and productivity benefits of fixed colour palette printing, but we also are able to achieve higher line screens and extremely brilliant colours without any compromise in colour stability. Homogenous ink transfer makes it nearly impossible to distinguish our fixed colour palette flexo printing from the highest quality gravure. We are now technically able to provide high-end printing quality that meets the expectations of even the most demanding customers while benefiting from improved OEE!”

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