On the Straight and Narrow-web

Narrow-web combination printing attracts a lot of high-end hoopla, but straightforward flexo continues to make market strides.

by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor

AMERICA IS HOOKED on the all-in-one solution, from superstores to shopping malls to everything advertised on infomercials. The packaging industry is no different—the current narrow-web combination craze certainly speaks to the single-source lover. Its rapid growth, however, may cloud non-combination narrow-web flexo's continuing progress.

Though no one disputes the performance of, and market potential for, combination work in narrow-web, suppliers are quick to testify to the significance of straight flexo.

Kim Tanis, VP/North American sales for Allied Gear/Gi Due USA, believes non-combination printing is on the rise: "The evidence is manufacturers have come out with 'plain-vanilla' presses." Tanis credits the improved quality of flexo for its increased usage, and cites developments in water-based inks and ceramic anilox rolls as chief factors in flexo's growing success.

Straight flexo, he observes, has become ever more favored for such jobs as carton labels and food labels, especially as those presses tend to be configured with more colors than in the past.

Mark Andy's Ken Daming, director of product management, finds narrow-web flexo to be an ideal match for short runs on unsupported films. He maintains, "We get better quality than a wide-web film press, and still have the advantages of lower tooling and plate costs, and less waste."

Daming adds most unsupported film presses Mark Andy sells are 16 inches to 20 inches wide. He explains, "Converters can use this equipment for producing an unsupported film one minute, and a p-s label job the next."

At Allied Gear, the most popular width for straight flexo presses remains 10 inches, reports Tanis, with 13-inch, 16-inch, and 20-inch presses more commonplace for combinations.

Flexo deluxe

Flexo advancements have made combo presses all the more attractive to both printers and press manufacturers. RDP Marathon's President Eric Short, whose company specializes in high-end offset/flexo combos, affirms, "Flexo is only interesting to us because it can produce the quality needed."

Short relates press design has been "driven backwards from the end-user" and the market's demand for high quality. For the printer with capital at his disposal, combination printing provides an ideal way of achieving top-notch graphic detail on one press, in one pass. RDP's LF 200 seeks to do just that in its 20-inch or 26-inch litho/flexo configuration.

Tanis agrees on combo printing's future: "The combo press is probably taking over higher-quality work." Last year, about 15 percent to 20 percent of the presses on Allied Gear's show room floor possessed combination capabilities. This year, combo presses comprise approximately 35 percent of sales.

Where previously end-use customers would hire two converters to handle different printing process elements for one job, Tanis states, "More converters' customers are demanding a single source."

Box beat

While combination printing gains ground in high-end applications, straight narrow-web flexo may find future sales potential in the folding carton market. As Chris Raney, area sales manager for Bobst Champlain Products attests, "In this area of the market there has been little demand for combination printing, perhaps with the exception of in-line hot foil stamping."

Raney believes, in the U.S. market, the majority of narrow-web installations seem to be made by smaller companies entering the folding carton segment who want to bypass the traditional sheetfed offset route.

"In many cases this has been successful," Raney says, though he admits the success is sometimes limited by difficulties in diecutting the cartons accurately, due to the quality of the flat bed diecutter in use.

Final hurdles

While the science of flexography has come a long way, there are a few challenges for it to overcome to join the ranks of offset and gravure.

Daming is concerned with web tension issues: "As good as the web tension systems on [flexo] presses have become, they cannot handle a one-mil thick low-density polyethylene film." This extremely extensible film is usually printed on a central impression press.

He mentions the problem of web "snap-back," in which a film, which has been printed while under tension, snaps back to its original length with a slightly shorter image. Fortunately, some servo-driven presses solve the problem by speeding up the web relative to the tooling.

From the folding carton perspective, Raney is convinced the chief flexo process challenges are in the area of vignette printing. As he describes, "When the dot falls below 5 percent good results can be achieved, but often frequent stoppages are required to clean the plate during the run." He supports good design work as the best solution to the problem.