York Repro-Graphic Group Turns To Asahi AWP Flexo Plates For Fixed Color Palette Printing

September 7, 2016
Asahi Flexo Plates, AWP Water Wash, CTGA Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates, Flexographic Printing Plates

Tokyo, Japan & Brussels, Belgium, 1 September 2016 – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, today announced that the York Repro-Graphic Group (YRG) has adopted the premium quality Asahi AWPTM flexographic plate system for its clients using the fixed color palette printing process. Designed for high quality print performance, the AWP water wash plate outperforms the best digital plates currently available for flexo and produces higher quality than Flat Top Dot plates. For the first time, a digital photopolymer plate can hold extremely small stable dots – smaller than those of solvent processed plates – and its stability on press is superior to solvent plates, with numerous associated environmental and waste reduction benefits. Its precise register ensures faster make-ready and reduced waste on press.

Mark Gration, group managing director at YRG, said, “We are seeing growing demand for packaging produced using the fixed color palette printing process due to its many efficiencies, including reduced ink inventories, faster make-ready, fewer press stops and less waste. It significantly reduces job changeover times since no wash-ups are required between jobs. But to achieve the quality that brand owners demand requires precise registration. That’s why we chose to use Asahi AWP water washable plates for those clients using fixed color palette printing. The quality that can be achieved with these plates surpasses Flat Top Dot printing quality, making the AWP plate the best plate in the market for this purpose.” YRG, the first repro house in the world to comply with the ISO-12647 color standard, strongly believes in the ability of the fixed color palette printing process to ensure the future viability of the flexographic printing process.

Moving forward, YRG plans to further develop its in-plant platemaking services at customer printing sites. “This will enable us to help our clients further reduce turn times in the plate-to-press process to meet the needs of the changing market environment, which is increasingly demanding just-in-time production,” Gration states. “And the Asahi AWP system’s ease of use and environmental friendliness will be an important factor in moving this process closer to press operations.”

Asahi Study proves overall equipment effectiveness improvements for flexo are achievable

May 19, 2016
Asahi Flexo Plates, Asahi Pinning Technology, CTGA Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates, Flexographic Printing Plates

Original article found on flexpack.info

Asahi Photoproducts has carried out a practical OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) study with the Italian press manufacturer Uteco in Verona. Over the past 20 years, Asahi and Uteco have teamed on various projects to study how to make print production more efficient through a combination of the press, printing plates and other materials.

“Our studies show that printing plates make a significant contribution to overall performance in flexographic printing,” says Andrea Belloli, Italian Branch manager for Asahi Photoproducts, “and many of the studies we have conducted with Uteco over the years are designed to both guide our development efforts and prove the results as we bring new products to market. Uteco Group CEO Aldo Peretti adds, “Quality and performance are key customer requirements. These ongoing tests with Asahi are part of our ‘pit-stop project’ designed to find ways to speed up job changeover times on CI flexo presses. This latest study certainly proves that choosing the right plates can make a huge difference.”

During the study, two one-colour print runs of approximately 38,000 meters each were undertaken in Uteco’s Printing Technology Center, the Converdrome, in Verona. One run used standard solvent-washable plates; the other used Asahi’s AWP water-washable plates with Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer. All other characteristics of the run were the same, including substrate and inks, and used the latest Uteco CI model press, the Onyx XS, running at a 300 meter per minute press speed.

  • For the conventional plate, the run length was 37,368 linear meters. It took a total running time of 173 minutes. Total press down time was 47 minutes for plate cleaning. Waste produced was 1,025 metres. OEE efficiency was calculated to be 72%.
  • For the Asahi plates, the run length was 38,000 linear meters. It took a total running time of 140 minutes. Total press down time was 8 minutes for plate cleaning. Waste produced was 450 metres OEE efficiency was calculated to be 91%.

“We were very pleased with these results,” Belloli states. “It translates to a 26% OEE improvement with Asahi AWP plates as compared conventional solvent plates and produced 575 linear meters less waste material while at the same time delivering higher overall quality. In a busy flexographic shop, this would translate to the ability to process two more jobs with similar length through the press by using AWP plates, a significant increase in throughput.”

As a result of these tests, Asahi was awarded the prestigious European Flexographic Industry Association (EFIA) Gold Award for Sustainable Manufacturing and Product Innovation.

Read the complete article on flexpack.info

ASAHI/UTECO STUDY PROVES OVERALL EQUIPMENT EFFECTIVENESS (OEE) IMPROVEMENTS FOR FLEXO ARE ACHIEVABLE

May 12, 2016
Asahi Flexo Plates, Asahi Pinning Technology, CTGA Flexo, CTGA Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates, Flexographic Printing Plates, Pinning Top Dot Flexo

Original article from Asahi Photoproducts

Tokyo, Japan, & Brussels, Belgium, May 12, 2016 – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, today reported that it has carried out a practical OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) study with the Italian press manufacturer Uteco in Verona. Over the past 20 years, Asahi and Uteco have teamed on various projects to study how to make print production more efficient through a combination of the press, printing plates and other materials.

“Our studies show that printing plates make a significant contribution to overall performance in flexographic printing,” says Andrea Belloli, Italian Branch manager for Asahi Photoproducts, “and many of the studies we have conducted with Uteco over the years are designed to both guide our development efforts and prove the results as we bring new products to market. Uteco Group CEO Aldo Peretti adds, “Quality and performance are key customer requirements. These ongoing tests with Asahi are part of our ‘pit-stop project’ designed to find ways to speed up job changeover times on CI flexo presses. This latest study certainly proves that choosing the right plates can make a huge difference.”

During the study, two one-colour print runs of approximately 38,000 meters each were undertaken in Uteco’s Printing Technology Center, theConverdrome, in Verona. One run used standard solvent-washable plates; the other used Asahi’s AWP water-washable plates with Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer. All other characteristics of the run were the same, including substrate and inks, and used the latest Uteco CI model press, the Onyx XS, running at a 300 meter per minute press speed.

• For the conventional plate, the run length was 37,368 linear meters. It took a total running time of 173 minutes. Total press down time was 47 minutes for plate cleaning. Waste produced was 1,025 metres. OEE efficiency was calculated to be 72%.

• For the Asahi plates, the run length was 38,000 linear meters. It took a total running time of 140 minutes. Total press down time was 8 minutes for plate cleaning. Waste produced was 450 metres OEE efficiency was calculated to be 91%.

“We were very pleased with these results,” Belloli states. “It translates to a 26% OEE improvement with Asahi AWP plates as compared conventional solvent plates and produced 575 linear meters less waste material while at the same time delivering higher overall quality. In a busy flexographic shop, this would translate to the ability to process two more jobs with similar length through the press by using AWP plates, a significant increase in throughput.”

As a result of these tests, Asahi was awarded the prestigious European Flexographic Industry Association (EFIA) Gold Award for Sustainable Manufacturing and Product Innovation.

Read the complete article here

Asahi Flexo Plates With Award Winning Pinning Technology

April 22, 2016
Asahi Flexo Plates, Asahi Pinning Technology, CTGA Flexo, CTGA Flexo Plates, Flexo Plate Material, Flexo Plates, Flexographic Printing Plates, Pinning Top Dot Flexo

Asahi flexo plates provide customers with Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer. This unique Asahi plate technology is 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. 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.

As a leading U.S. distributor of Asahi flexo plate material, CTGA is happy to play a part in the success and growth of our customers’ businesses by offering these ground-breaking quality flexo plates to their operations.  If you haven’t experienced the quality of Asahi flexo plates with pinning top dot technology yet, contact CTGA today and speak with one of our technical sales representatives about getting a free sample of Asahi Flexo Plate Material.

Asahi’s plate line includes:

AWP™-DEF water-washable plates, producing superior results compared to traditional technologies and even outperforming the latest generation of digital flexographic printing plates. The AWP™-DEF plate delivers a level of graphic reproduction with more complete ink transfer and a wider tonal range. With its solvent-free platemaking process, there is no need for high temperature processes and the result is a perfect, dimensionally stable plate that ensures high quality print registration without colour shift.

AFP™–TOP, a premium digital flexo plate designed primarily for wide-web film printing applications giving the printer a broader colour gamut with soft tonal shades fading out to zero. With superb press stability characteristics, it is able to consistently reproduce and print small dots and is able to print vignettes that run to zero. It delivers an average cost savings of 18{402c2385650ceb937fc5dfccd4761ceed5dd330756c4d730d625389f210d2cf9} due to improved overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) as compared to standard digital flexo plates, resulting in savings of several hundred thousand euros per year.

AFP™ – TSP for paper printing applications. These medium-hard plates are tailor-made for paper and higher quality corrugated board applications with water-based inks. TSP plates are compatible with water, solvent and most UV-curable inks, enabling all converters to benefit from Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer. These plates also facilitate homogeneous ink transfer in solid and line work, and better control of ink trapping when different colour inks are printed on top of each other.

1 2 3 4