Is Analog’s Time Running Out?

Trends in flexo platemaking reflect two things: the dwindling number of users who favor analog workflows over digital and those who already have made the transition to digital—and never looked back. Trends in digital flexo platemaking shake out between users who prefer solvent-based workflows and those who have already made, or are seriously contemplating, the switch to thermal.

In the world of flexo platemaking, options are proliferating. By the time “The Greatest Show On Earth” rolls in and out of Düsseldorf this spring, flexo shops will have more choices than ever to help them achieve the results they want.

Advantage: Digital

According to Ian Hole, VP of market development for EskoArtwork, whose line of Cyrel Digital Flexo Plate Imagers (CDI) is the result of a technology partnership with DuPont, “We have passed the stage where people have to ask whether digital flexo is worth it.” The fact is digital workflows are slowly gaining dominance over analog for reasons of time, productivity, and performance.

“Trade shops want the advantages of digital technology because their customers, the converters, do,” explains Paul Merkel, director, global product management for MacDermid. “The benefits of using a digital workflow, as well as the enhanced print quality of the digital plates, carry through from the trade shop to the converter and ultimately its customer, the package buyer. That said, although today’s carbon-masked digital plates offer higher quality and greater tonal range than analog plates, the entire printing process—from fingerprinting and prepress to press, anilox, ink, and substrates—must be properly aligned to take maximum advantage of the digital plates’ capabilities.”

Greater than half of DuPont’s platemaking business is digital, explains Ray Bodwell, marketing manager, DuPont Packaging Graphics. “Even the corrugated world is digital, and what has driven it there isn’t quality. Instead, it’s the nature of digital platemaking itself: it yields a very consistent dot, which ultimately means that press makeready will be easier. When you compare flexo press makeready times with offset and gravure, for example, you see that flexo makereadies were always more challenging.” This is not to say that it isn’t possible to make a high-quality plate using analog technology, Bodwell cautions, only that the flat-top, sharp-edged analog dots demand that impression settings be, and stay, precise.

Advantage: Thermal

The most common process used today in flexo platemaking is still solvent-based solid photopolymer, despite double-digit annual growth on the thermal side. In contrast, thermal technology uses heat and pressure to wick away the uncured photopolymer. Speed and elimination of VOCs are thermal’s primary benefit; the technology can reduce the individual plate-making cycle time dramatically, all while eliminating the use of solvents. However, “if neither of these are critical to your business, you will not make the investment,” Merkel says, citing the large number of printers throughout Latin America and Asia whose business models, current practices, and environmental regulations do not drive them to eliminate the use of solvents.

For printers that make the transition to thermal plate processing, MacDermid offers the LAVA Thermal Processor, as well as a range of plates, which are designed to run in its solvent and thermal plate-making systems. This dual plate-processing capability can be extremely handy during periods of “lumpy” demand, especially for customers that have multiple plate-making systems. The customer selects the plate-making process that best suits its needs, independent of the plate.

MacDermid continues to develop flexo plate and plate processing technologies. It has committed to introducing eight new plate products in 2008. At drupa 2008, the company plans to announce a development that could “change the industry thinking on how we make plates,” says Merkel. He refers to a direct-write technology, which the company bills as the first true CTP technology for packaging flexo.

Like digital flexo workflows, thermal technology continues to surprise people by slowly eating into solvent’s market share, and in recent years has enjoyed double-digit growth. And while it’s possible to make a digital plate without going thermal, the benefits of thermal technology are widely accepted: quality, speed, and ease of use, with significant environmental and health advantages.

“CPGs are coming back to the packaging people for help in meeting the sustainability requirements of retailers like Wal-Mart,” says Bodwell. “If you’re printing on a certain film with a certain inkset, there aren’t many knobs you can turn. But if you can change from a solvent plate to a DuPont FAST thermal plate, for example, and get measurable improvement, that is a valuable metric.”

A word about cost

While conventional wisdom assumes that thermal technology is up to 50 percent more costly than solvent on a per-square-inch basis, this assumption is misleading, Bodwell says. “On a square-inch, raw-material basis, DuPont Cyrel FAST plates are a little higher than our digital solvent plates.” However, “if you look at the business model we use for Cyrel FAST, that square-inch pricing includes the equipment, the service on the equipment, and disposal of the developer rolls that take the place of solvent. As part of the deal, DuPont takes the developer roll material back and disposes of it in alternative fuel incinerators. We take cradle-to-grave responsibility for the byproducts of FAST processing. When you look at the cost on a per-square-inch basis and realize it covers the machine, the developer roll, and everything, and then you look at the solvent workflow where you buy the plate, buy your own processing equipment and solvents, and dispose of your own still bottoms, the actual total to produce is probably remarkably similar.”

Another point of view

“Thermal technology is valuable, but it’s not necessarily what converters are looking for,” says Jim Vertullo, president of JV Imaging Systems. He also claims that quality issues associated with thermal technology are fueling a return to solvent-based processing, including full solvent digital plates. “People have had an opportunity to work with thermal for a few years,” he says. “There are always compromises. If you want ease of operation and your operator is new, thermal may be best. If you’re trying to push the quality envelope, then solvent is a better solution.”

According to Vertullo, new advances simultaneously address some of the traditional drawbacks and bottlenecks associated with solvent technology and compete with thermal on its sustainable home turf. “Thermal is much quicker than solvent-based processing because you’re not soaking the plate in solvent,” he admits, adding that drying has always been the Achilles heel of the solvent process. To counter this, a proprietary technology developed by JV Imaging uses visible white light and cool air to dry the plates. On the environmental front, “we’re very concerned about prolonged operator exposure to solvents,” Vertullo says. Consequently, “we use a high molecular rate aromatic solvent with a very large molecule that won’t absorb into the human system, so it’s safe from the standpoint of toxicology.”

Vertullo says that 50 percent of JV Imaging customers are still using analog workflows, and that smaller users have been especially slow to make the transition to digital. “Digital workflow is a black box to most folks,” he says. “But the smaller ones are coming on board. Once they get beyond the transition and experience the improvements in quality and efficiency, they’re convinced. pP