Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer
plate development, today announced it will be attending EskoWorld for the first
time. Asahi will be located in the Innovation Center at the show, scheduled for
5 to 7 June at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa in San Antonio,
Texas.
“In our fast-paced and rapidly evolving industry,
efficiency, waste reduction and speed to market are critical,” said Stephan
Doppelhammer, Asahi Photoproducts Europe Business Development Manager. “By
partnering with Esko, we bring together solutions from two world-class
companies to create a faster, more efficient and more consistent workflow in
flexographic platemaking. Esko Equinox is ideal for converting separations to
fixed palette printing, while Esko’s Crystal technology reduces the number of
platemaking steps required and is making the process more consistent. By adding
Asahi’s AWP water washable plates with Clean Transfer Technology to the mix,
Asahi and Esko customers can take OEE to a brand-new level of efficiency while
boosting print quality and reducing their environmental footprint.”
Voice of the
Customer
Gateway Packaging, a leading high-end printer/
packaging converter and the largest pet food packaging provider in North
America, recently restructured its entire platemaking process with Asahi
Photoproducts solutions as the core element. The company performed extensive
testing that led up to the final decision. “When running the Asahi AWP Clean
Transfer plates,” explained Tharrin Akers, the company’s Prepress Manager, “we
were able to run the press at a 17% higher speed – 1,640 feet per minute (from
426 m / min. to 500 m / min) – and only had to stop for plate cleaning once.
And that only required cleaning two plates, consuming 20 minutes. The result
was a total production time of 7.2 hours instead of 11 hours in the past and an
astonishing 53% improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) over our
previous process.”
Clean
Transfer Technology: The Details
A feature of many of Asahi’s flexographic printing
plates, Clean Transfer Technology enables a clean ink transfer and prevents ink
accumulating on the plate surfaces and shoulders in screen areas. This leads to
fewer cleaning intervals and reduced press downtime, as well as significant
quality improvements. Precise plate register achieved with Asahi AWP plates
ensures very high quality process printing with a fixed color palette,
minimizing the need to use and manage spot colour inks.
Clean Transfer Technology allows a kiss-touch
printing pressure setting. It makes use of low plate surface tension, made
possible by a specially engineered Asahi polymer chemistry, to inhibit liquid
flow. The ink forms a globule, with a large contact angle and high pinning
point. This results in a cleaner and more homogeneous ink transfer from plate
to substrate, helping flexographic printers meet the ever-increasing quality
demands of their customers.
