In-the-Round Plate Imaging

With sleeves beginning to dominate in the pressrooms (and with ITR being in practical use already in Europe) we can start to see advantages of using ITR for non-seamless applications, too. Explains Tom Cassano, packaging product manager for MacDermid (Atlanta, Ga.): "Imaging the photopolymer while it is on the carrier sleeve [ITR] is a process very forgiving of plate mounting errors. That's important today because as we push flexo to its quality limits, even a 20-mil skew can create hours of waste and downtime. When we put an ITR sleeve in the print deck, all we have to worry about is accurate side-to-side and front-to-back register."