With plans to increase efficiency and customer satisfaction,
Italian packaging prepress company Tadam has chosen to invest in a Kodak
Flexcel NX Wide System and Kodak Flexcel NXC Plates to meet the demands of its
broad customer base, including producers of high-end corrugated cartons. Designed to increase the visual appearance of
corrugated flexo post-printing while opening the door for cost-saving
opportunities such as the use of lower grade liners, the new additions to its
pre-press product offerings will help Tadam, a long-time user of Kodak
technology, achieve its strategic goals of expanding its business with existing
customers and attracting new printers.
The aim: the highest
quality for corrugated cardboard
Headquartered in Maltignano in the Ascoli Piceno province of
Italy, Tadam is a prepress service provider operating mainly in the packaging
sector. In particular, the company works with printers of corrugated cartons
for the food, wine and footwear sectors, where top quality is a must. Bruno
Amadio, Director at Tadam, explains his reasons for choosing to invest in the
Kodak solution. “I have always tried to analyse and understand my customers’
problems. In a nutshell, in the corrugated sector, these are: absorption,
achieving solid colour areas, and corrugations being visible after printing.
Today, producers of corrugated cartons need quality and the Kodak system offers
them a broader range of tonality, higher resolution screening, more efficient
ink transfer and a higher level of quality on cardboard made of lower quality
paper, thus resolving these problems.”
Differentiated Kodak
technology
The Flexcel NX Wide System at Tadam includes the latest Flexcel
NX Wide-C Imager, the first to be installed in Italy, and leverages Kodak
Squarespot Imaging Technology at an optical resolution of 10,000dpi to produce
digital flexo plates that enable a broader tonal range, use of higher line
screens, more efficient ink transfer and a higher level of quality. The newly
introduced Flexcel NXC Plates have been developed specifically for the needs of
the corrugated post-print market. Through the use of a unique printing dot
profile and Kodak Digicap NX Patterning technology that creates a micro
texturized plate surface to transfer ink more efficiently to the substrate, the
plates enable significant improvements in highlight reproduction, printed
densities and washboarding without the need to use increased ink volumes.
Benefits that extend
beyond the corrugated sector
In addition to their corrugated client base, Tadam also
service flexible packaging printers and clients in the pharmaceuticals sector.
Mr. Amadio explains how working for the pharmaceutical sector contributes to
the need to increase production efficiency and internal controls: “When you
work for this sector, you need to follow certain rules and procedures because
the pharmaceutical companies come in to conduct on-site audits themselves and
we have to guarantee complete traceability over the whole production process.
Today we have an internal system that tracks the entire production process,
from the start of a job order right through to quality control and invoicing.
This focus on quality control extends all the way out to our customers,
including those in corrugated cartons and flexible packaging through the
implementation of the Kodak Flexcel NX System technology and Kodak Prinergy Workflow,
which has brought undoubted benefits in terms of efficiency, predictability,
error reduction and customer satisfaction. The level of customer complaints we
now receive has been reduced to a minimum as a result.”
A focus on meeting customer needs
“Having used Kodak’s technology for many years, Tadam
decided to place an order for the Flexcel NX Wide System and the newly launched
Flexcel NXC Plates in July 2014.” says Michele Pioli, Packaging Segment Manager
for Kodak in Italy. “The recent development of the Kodak corrugated solution
included beta testing in Germany, Australia and North America, however this is
the first installation of its kind in the Mediterranean cluster, and we are
delighted that Tadam and their clients are experiencing the predicted
benefits.”
“Use of the Flexcel NXC Plates with their flat-top dot
structure (same height overall) significantly reduces the time for plate-anilox
and plate-substrate interference regulation (impression), thus reducing
start-up time and rejects, while also reducing the dot-gain differences caused
by unwanted printing pressure variations during the run. This in turn gives a
big improvement in tone and colour stability, increasing the quality and
uniformity of prints as well as the bottom line, i.e. the profitability of the
order.”
Tadam’s customers have been able to witness all these
advantages with their own eyes, as Mr Amadio explains: “We did some concrete
tests by printing the same file using traditional digital plates and the Flexcel
NXC Plates. The results were incredible. We were able to make a plate with
isolated dots in a very small area. The solid colours really are solid because
the density is comparable to offset and the corrugations are no longer
visible.”
Mr Pioli concludes:
“With Kodak plate technology, Tadam’s customers are obtaining more
uniform print results and improved colour perception, and will be able to work
with typical offset standards (Fogra). Kodak continues to be focussed on truly
understanding the needs of specific sectors and delivering technology that not
only improves print quality but also simplifies processes and reduces total
delivered cost.”
Tadam was founded in 1994 as a photolithography company,
when its current director, Bruno Amadio, started learning everything about
colour management and prepress with the help of colour specialists and experts.
In the early days, the firm prepared extracts for medical books in Germany and
art catalogues. As the technology evolved, photolithography became a prepress
service and today the company’s overriding aim is quality, to offer printers
plates that meet the highest standards.
