Flexo CtP?Out of the Gates

Northwest Flexo, a printer of high-quality tags and labels located in Lynnwood, Wash., recently installed an Esko-Graphics' CDI Spark flexo platesetter that it purchased through The Pitman Company. Using Cyrel®FAST plates, the company achieved immediate productivity improvements in its plate-processing time, which dropped by two-thirds. The plate quality improvement, however, really impressed Kevin Davis, president of Northwest Flexo. "You've got to see the quality of digital plates to believe it. In our 175 lpi process color and vignettes, we're holding dots you can barely see with a loupe." After seeing a trial print using digital plates on a four-color process cosmetic label, Davis says that the customer wanted its entire business converted to digital plates.