Flexo Quick to Learn Advantages of CTP

pP: What trends are you seeing in CTP for flexo?

Vanover: In terms of hardware, to make it quicker, obviously, easier to use, with automatic plate-loading and unloading. There also are ways to create efficiencies from an imaging perspective. We're seeing more adoption in the tag and label market, but the reason trade shop people are getting busier in the corrugated and folding carton markets, is probably that they're supplying more plates and doing facilities management. Because the other thing that happened is that while packaging has become an advertising medium, packaging runs, like print runs, are getting shorter. They become cross-promotional tie-ins with a movie like Shrek or a NASCAR race or the World Series. There's also regionalization and culturalization. You still may print a couple of million Coke cartons a week, but those couple of million all may be different because they're going to different regions of the country. Hence, the requirements for more plates.