Many a superhero has relied on the power of advanced equipment—such as Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, Green Lantern’s power ring, and Captain America’s shield—to help perform their extraordinary feats. For today’s narrow-web printers, technical heroism is often required to meet print-job demands, and advanced equipment can also hold a pivotal role in “saving the day” for a customer. At Rotocolor Inc., playing the hero—through a willingness to go where other printers won’t—has helped the 16-year-old flexo printer become master of its own unique corner in the narrow-web universe. “We find a way to get it done when everyone else says, ‘We can’t do
Susan Busch
Attention RFID converters: clear your schedules now, because it looks like you’re going to be a bit busy for the next 10 years. Independent consultant IDTechEx predicts RFID technology will eventually become as ubiquitous as the barcode, and converters have the potential to play a more pivotal role in production. A report by the organization projects as early as 2016 that RFID “will mostly be printed directly onto packaging and products, possibly in the hundreds of billions, and [will use] special electronic inks.” Back here in the present, with the technology still in its early stages, there is no standard route to involvement for
Flexo has long been crowned the fastest growing graphic arts application for UV technology, and experts say usage continues to climb across all press widths. On narrow-web presses in particular, UV curing systems have moved decisively into standard component territory. “Now it would be very rare for a [narrow-web] press not to have at least one UV [unit] … and most presses are all UV,” affirms John Mitchell, sales/product manager, UVTechnology. By contrast, UV ink usage remains more of a specialty than a must for mid- and wide-web flexo printers, but interest has reportedly been building in the past several years, particularly for mid-web
