Consumables-General - Plates

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Flint Group Flexographic Products has announced that Anderson & Vreeland, Inc. has agreed to distribute its line of nyloprint® printing plates and processing equipment for letterpress printing applications.

ATLANTA, Ga.—MacDermid Printing Solutions announced that effective June 11, 2009, Heidelberg Canada Graphic Equipment Limited will distribute MacDermid’s sheet photopolymer plate products and equipment in Canada.

Flexo platemaking, in its most basic concept, is very simple. So, why do people find it so complex? This article will explain the key points, and clarify common confusions.

COLUMBUS, Ga.—Kodak has recently completed the expansion of its digital plate production facility in Columbus, Ga. Adding 26,000 square feet to the existing facility, Kodak is using this third production line to meet the digital plate supply needs of print service providers in a wide variety of markets, and to further its commitment to advancing digital plate production processes and technologies.

GENT, Belgium—EskoArtwork will present solutions for printers at the Graphics of the Americas Exposition and Conference (GOA 2009) Feb. 26-28, in Miami. The company will demonstrate its complete solutions portfolio for  commercial printers, packaging, and sign companies. EskoArtwork brings together the systems, software, and hardware, as well as the people and available information assets in order to effectively connect them into high-performance workflows.

BRYAN, Ohio—Automated mounter manufacturer Leader Engineering Fabrication, Inc. and Anderson & Vreeland, Inc. have recently formed a marketing alliance.

Flint Group Flexographic Products announced the addition of Dansen Prepress Corporation to its sales force for the rotec® line of sleeve products, effective December 15th, 2008.

Flexographic printing quality has been approaching that of gravure for some time now. Although it has been attractive to printers due to its lower price point than gravure printing, one of flexo’s shortfalls has always been that its quality is not at the same level as gravure. Trisoft Graphics, Inc. (www.trisoftco.com)—a digital prepress and graphic design company serving the packaging industry since 1993—recently installed a new flexographic platemaking system it expects to use to produce flexographic printing plates that, when employed, will rival gravure’s quality.

In developing the endless photopolymer sleeves we have therefore been able to draw upon extensive experience with ITR printing forms, sleeves and adapter systems. [...] in terms of both the base sleeve and the manufacturing technology, nyloflex® ITR Thin and nyloflex® ITR Classic are based on existing rotec expertise. The wall thickness of the Thin version is 1.570 mm, that of the Classic version 3.165 mm. These sizes are equivalent to using printing plates in the standard commercial thickness of 1.14 mm and 2.84 mm respectively. For customers, this in turn represents a kind of standard in terms of printing forms, regardless of whether a mounted printing plate or an ITR sleeve is used. [...] they have reported improvements in colour transfer and advantages in laser imaging. [...] we may be able to modify the raw material used for the new nyloflex® FAB plate, which is designed specifically for printing with UV-inks, so that it can be used for ITR sleeves. Since components such as polymers, sleeves, adapters and processing units all come from a single source, Flint Group Flexographic Products is able to operate as a full-system supplier. Since the dimensions of nyloflex® ITR sleeves are based exactly on the conventional system, existing adapters can be still used. [...] users can choose alternative endless sleeves with specific print characteristics without having to invest in new peripherals.

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Trisoft Graphics, Inc.—a digital prepress and graphic design company headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif.—recently installed a KODAK FLEXCEL NX Digital Flexographic System to more effectively meet the quality demands of its customer base.