Esko announces that Esko Full HD Flexo platemaking system
and Esko Equinox, Esko´s solution for the implementation of extended gamut – or
fixed inkset – printing, are both recipients of 2014 Printing Industries of
America InterTech Technology Awards. Since 1978 the InterTech Technology
Awards, sponsored by Printing Industries of America, have honored the
development of technologies predicted to have a major impact on the graphic
arts and related industries. More than 80% of technologies that receive an
award experience continued commercial success in the marketplace.
These are the sixth and seventh InterTech awards Esko
solutions have received over the past ten years. Other recipients include Esko
WebCenter (2006), Esko DeskPack 3-dX (2007), Esko Neo (2008), Esko Studio
Toolkit for Shrink Sleeves (2011) and i-cut Suite (2012).
“We are very honored to receive two awards from Printing
Industries of America this year. Esko has a legacy of listening to our
customers and using our ingenuity to develop products – very often new product
concepts or categories – that offer our customers tremendous added value,”
explains Carsten Knudsen, Esko President and CEO. “Esko’s insistence in
investing a much higher portion of our budget than the industry average into
R&D every year helps to support our continuous innovation helps to fuel
these products that result in competitive advantages for our customers.”
Esko Full HD Flexo:
superior flexo printing plates
Esko Full HD Flexo is a platemaking system for superior
flexo printing for all packaging applications. It utilizes a patented, fully
digitally controlled platemaking system combining high-resolution 4000ppi imaging
with a unique inline UV main exposure unit. An LED-array delivers UV power
density strong enough to fully control the plate polymerization process during
main exposure. For the first time, flexo plates are imaged, exposed and
delivered directly to the plate processor, without need for light table
exposure.
With Full HD Flexo, flexo platemaking has become a true
“Computer to Plate” process: no lamination, no films, and no extra steps with
light tables. No special consumables are needed, and it is not proprietary: it
works with all popular digital flexo plates and sleeves. Everything is done in
the CDI imager. Plates are ready for processing after unloading. Full HD Flexo
has had a positive impact on efficiency and cost. Press changeovers are faster
and downtimes are reduced. Substrate selection is less critical.
Full HD Flexo also offers consistency, because Inline UV
technology maintains consistent, digitally controlled UV light output
throughout the entire plate, while lamps in a bank exposure frame continuously
age and need frequent replacement every few hundred hours. Bank exposure frames
also deliver different UV output over the entire frame area. “The judges noted
that the inline UV technology is more controllable,” notes Mark Bohan, Vice
President, Technology and Research, Printing Industries of America.
“The judges also considered Full HD Flexo plate imaging a
much more flexible process, with the ability to digitally control the
generation of a dot shape, combining highlight capabilities of round dots with
the solid ink lay down and print stability of ‘flat top’ flexo plates – which
the judges agreed is not a trivial process. HD Flexo plates can produce images
with complete, 0-100% dot coverage delivering a wider color gamut. It was also
significant that the technology is upgradeable, already has a sizeable
installed base, and is not plate specific,” adds Bohan. “The very strong
customer letters demonstrated that HD Flexo is allowing flexo to challenge
gravure and offset.” This is occurring among a wide array of flexible
packaging, labels and corrugated printers worldwide.
Esko Equinox: Proving
the viability of extended gamut printing
“While people tried to promote extended gamut printing in
the past, it had been dedicated to offset, where printers might not have ample
press units to take advantage of the technology. However, flexo presses have
seven, eight or more units already – and it is significant for companies that
are working to match brand colors,” states Bohan. “While this technology is
used with other print methods, it was developed specifically for flexo. The
industry is ready to embrace this technology. It beats managing specially-mixed
inks.”
Equinox Expanded Color Gamut (ECG) Technology is Esko’s
patented technology for converting packaging graphics from CMYK and spot color
to seven-color process. It is applied in the prepress department when preparing
jobs for press. Converting entire files results in extremely close matches to
spot colors, improved pictorial images, and the ability to print more colors
than available ink stations on the press, resulting in improved image quality
and brand impact. The major benefit, however, is realized in the pressroom as
jobs print more economically and more consistently. The ability to create an
infinite number of colors from 7 process colors promotes “gang” press runs –
and the economic savings can surpass a million dollars per press per year.
Customers using Equinox ECG technology report that they use 7-color process
profitably in a production environment for flexible packaging as well as
labels. This has enabled many of the world’s largest consumer product companies
to convert entire product lines to expanded gamut.
“The judges liked the smart filters, the math and color
algorithms associated with Esko Equinox,” says Bohan. By quantifying only
subsets of four-color combinations, Equinox 7-color profiles contain hundreds
of times the amount of color data as a 7-color ICC color profile. These
profiles are used to convert industry standard ink books into tint build books
for a specific flexo press. Equinox also benefits from Esko HD and Full HD
Flexo platemaking, which is able to extend the gamut by producing plates that
can print dots from 0-100% while delivering consistent and reliable printing results
from job to job.
Esko Equinox is a major achievement because it moves
flexographic printing a giant step closer to being the economical manufacturing
process that the major CPCs of the world are demanding. “The fact that the
judges had a lengthy discussion about a specific PowerPoint presentation shows
both the interest and dedication. Everyone got involved with all the
materials,” observes Bohan. “They also noted that all the Equinox print sample
images were cleaner than 4-color images. But the benefit that was not lost with
the judges was the economic advantages of extended gamut printing.”
What is significant is that, while Full HD Flexo and Equinox
are strong products successfully used separately, both offer a unique synergy
when used together: the exceptional quality and reliable printing offered by
Full HD Flexo, and the economics delivered by extended gamut printing that is significantly
assured with Full HD Flexo plates.
“Esko takes our role in the industry very seriously. We
spend a good deal of time understanding the direction of the industry – and try
to help to drive it – before we strategize products that truly are innovative
but also have merit in the industry. It takes a lot of work to create a viable
vision that drives the development of products like Full HD Flexo and Equinox.
However, while we are flattered that these products have received acclaim this
year, it is even more gratifying that many converters throughout the world are
using Full HD Flexo plates and Equinox to produce exceptional packaging that
offers a very powerful economic incentive,” concludes Knudsen.
