Digital Press and Prepress Changes
In addition to responding to converter and consumer concerns about the environment, manufacturers of prepress technology have also had to respond to the overall changes in digital press technology.
“Some of the advancements in prepress wouldn’t be possible without faster, more accurate presses, capable of higher end work,” says Barrett of MacDermid. “Without these press capabilities, it wouldn’t matter whether we were able to develop plates with smaller dots and fine line screens, because that improvement wouldn’t show up in print. So, as presses have gotten faster and more accurate, we have developed prepress technologies that are faster and more accurate as well.”
Stewart, of Flint Group Flexographic Products, echoes Barrett’s sentiment: “As higher print quality demands and other ink and press achievements have created a trend toward the use of harder flexo plates, the issue of plate rigidity and life can arise on small repeats,” she says.
“For Flint Group, these types of challenges have been met with new, refined product innovations, such as our nyloflex FAB and nyloflex FAM digital plates. Regarding the need for quick changeovers, our response was the hard rotec label sleeve, which was specially developed for narrow web presses. These sleeves offer consistent printing properties through high-dimensional stability, and long-lasting and continuous register accuracy.”
Greg Mais, sales representative at Sam Chung and Associates in Mississauga, ON, Canada, a prepress and plate supplier to the wide and narrow web industry, says that the future of flexo prepress technology will undoubtedly include ITR (in the round) sleeves.
“Within the last ten years the quality of flexo printing has made considerable progress,” he says. “The digital plate has increased the color gamut, contributed to higher screen counts and, with better plate materials, has contributed to a higher quality of clean flexo printing.”
“Using ITR sleeves can improve productivity and quality by increasing press speeds between 10-30 percent, eliminating the need for plate mounting, and by offering continuous designs, simplified trapping, better register and improved consistency,” he says.
From Internet
16 April, 2012
