Taking A Second Look at FIRST'
The second edition of Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications and Tolerances includes nine sections of new guidelines. Will more printers take the plunge and implement it?
by Susan Friedman
If there's an earthquake, scientists look to the Richter scale to gauge its magnitude. If there's a flexo job in the works, the FFTA hopes printers will turn just as automatically to FIRST (Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications and Tolerances) for concrete technical indicators.
The FIRST guidelines, originally released as a 95-page booklet in November '97, are designed to improve flexo quality and consistency, reduce cycle time, control costs, and put flexo on a level (or better) playing field with offset and gravure.
Almost immediately after FIRST made its debut, a committee was formed to hammer out the second edition, released at the second FIRST conference in November '99. Additions include new specifications for inks, substrates, digital photography and color management, as well as expanded specifications for plates, bar codes, anilox rolls, and communications.
Tom Cooper, prepress team leader at Rock-Tenn Company/Alliance Group and co-chairman of the second FIRST conference, says highlights of the second edition include the bar code specifications, which address the increased accountability inherent in using UPCs; ink specifications, which pursue customer-driven color management demands; and implementation/communications, which outline key players for pre-production meetings and how to establish project timelines and approval tracks.
A force behind the new ink/pigment specifications that caused so much excitement was David Argent, product manager at Progressive Ink. Argent says many flexo printers are in the chaotic position of having different pigments for the same color targets in different dispensers from plant to plant. The root of the problem is the practice of specifying pigments by street name, e.g., cyan blue, which in addition to causing pigment inconsistencies, can lead to the use of 20 pigments when 10 to 12 would suffice.
Argent's presentation—the result of two year's work with a vertically integrated team of pigment, dispersion, and ink suppliers, as well as printers and an end-user—revealed color index numbers as the new "Rosetta Stone" for pigments. Formerly believed to be proprietary to ink manufacturers, color index numbers provide a chemical identity for each pigment, including chemical structure and properties, Argent explains, achieving consistency that street-name identification cannot.
Argent plans to apply his team's research in his day-to-day business, helping customers audit their pigments' color index numbers and manage them to meet color needs. "Now that we've revealed this, we have a chance at managing color space in three dimensions," he adds.
Winning acceptance
The new pigment color index numbers are just one way FIRST has gotten more specific...and specifics seem to be a major prerequisite for wider-spread adoption of the guidelines.
Ron Schroder, technical services manager at Williamson Printing Materials and chairman of FIRST's subcommittee on mounting materials, says the initial guidelines were "a good starting point." Even though the second go-round is several times longer, more fine-tuning is likely. "FIRST is a living, changing document," he states.
"It's difficult to put numbers to some things," Schroder stresses. "It's difficult to say, ‘Do this, and that will happen,' particularly because flexo can print on so many substrates." As written, the guidelines can "put you in the ballpark" in many critical areas of the process, including prepress and press characterization.
Though the new edition will likely drive up the implementation rate, Schroder feels "it's a pretty common situation" to hear converters say they aren't using FIRST yet. "Everybody has what works for them now," he says. "Converters will adopt certain areas of FIRST that can make them better."
Where FIRST may be most useful is for printers attempting flexo process printing for the first time—as is just the case with Schroder's customer, Finpak International, a bag printer in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Finpak had built its business around flexo line work. But when President Rob Finch noticed a swing toward process work in packaging, he wanted to be "ahead of the game" by readying Finpak to offer that capability.
The first step toward a flexo process upgrade came in January 1999, with the purchase of a used, 6-color CI press that could run fine screen anilox rolls with chambered doctor blade systems. Built in 1975, the press did require reconditioning and some add-on equipment, but it was still "like night and day," Finch says, when compared to Finpak's existing cadre of presses, which he describes as "more like glorified rubber stampers."
Finch hadn't yet inked up his new press in June 1999 when he attended a FIRST seminar in Mississauga, Ontario, which he recalls as "a real eye-opener." Using FIRST's premier version, Finch zeroed in on its color targets and recommendations for fingerprinting the press. These guidelines—implemented with the help of Schroder and Dave Horsman, president of Canflexographics—took the fear out of flexo process work, Finch relates, by reducing it to "printing by the numbers."
When a job finally rolled off the C.I. press this past November—a four-color process popcorn bag printed with water-based inks, including flesh tones, on uncoated paper stock at 133 line screen—Finch took it to Schroder for feedback. "I think he was shocked by what he saw," Finch relates.
Affirms Schroder, "Except for a few tweaks needed in viscosity to correct solid ink density, the job looked like it could go out the door."
With this initial success under his belt, Finch plans to incorporate flexo process into Finpak's gift bag printing operations—with the help of FIRST. "Lots of people are interested in FIRST," he comments, "but I think they need to look a bit deeper and try it out. Why fool around? Why not do it right the first time?"
Turning interest into implementation may indeed be FIRST's biggest challenge. "Acceptance was overwhelming," remembers Cindy Cole, technical director of FFTA's Flexographic Technical Training Center, of the guidelines' debut, "but it's still a slow process that has to be done in stages."
"The committee for FIRST's premier edition went into it wanting to get it out there, with a second edition quickly following," Cole says. "Timing of the third version will be based on use of the second edition and flexo technology developments that occur."
