Featured Products - August 2013
Thermal Plate
Agfa Graphics's :Energy Elite Pro printing plate features a higher sensitivity and supports greater variations in exposure conditions. The printing plate provides excellent tonal range and high linescreen capability (1-99 percent at 200 lpi) due to its dual layer coating technology. The chemical resistant second layer and the improved mechanical resistance enable longer run lengths under aggressive press conditions including UV inks. :Energy Elite Pro can be used with a wide variety of plate setters and thermal processors, including Agfa Graphics' high-speed :Avalon N8-80XT.—www.agfagraphics.com
Full HD Flexo
Full HD Flexo for flexible packaging provides a gravure-like ink laydown with a fully digitally controlled platemaking workflow. The plates are prepared within an Esko CDI that combines plate imaging with inline digital main exposure in the same device. The digital inline UV2 exposes through an LED-array light source that delivers the necessary UV power density to assure full control over the polymerization process during exposure. All UV exposure settings are digital controlled within the platemaking workflow. Full HD Flexo works with all popular digital flexo plates and sleeves, allowing users to choose whatever plate best fits their business needs.—www.esko.com
Platemaking Facility
Sun Chemical is opening a new flexographic printing plate manufacturing facility in Concord, Calif. to support printers and brand owners operating in the narrow web tag and label, wide web, folding carton, and corrugated markets. With a $5 million investment, the new 25,000 sq. ft. facility will consist of equipment to manufacture HD plates, including an Esko HD CDI laser imager, a MacDermid LUX® laminator, and DuPont's DigiFlow/DigiCorr systems, as well as the Esko Digital Flexo Suite (DFS) pin mounting system. As part of the investment, Sun Chemical will also be upgrading its Maumee, Ohio facility by adding a mirrored digital HD sheet photopolymer system.—www.sunchemical.com
Direct Engraving Material
AVCE direct engraving material, offered by Anderson & Vreeland (A&V), is imaged by direct laser ablation in a one-step process that provides excellent ink transfer, dimensional stability and durability, up to 30 percent faster processing, and plate resolution up to 200 lpi for flexography and 250 lpi for letterpress. It has recently received the Accredited Printing Plate Seal for direct laser engraving from Stork Prints. AVCE allows the control of engraving parameters that affect dot shape and support; plate relief becomes shallower and more stable since it can be engraved precisely in the third dimension with up to 12-bit digital resolution. AVCE is a true polymer material, so pre-exposure is not required.—www.andersonvreeland.com
Digital Plates
DuPont Packaging Graphics has introduced DuPont™ Cyrel® Performance Plates, a new family of flexographic plates designed to enable higher quality at higher speed. These plates are designed for flexible packaging printers requiring high densities, while maintaining good minimum dot size. They are fully functional with all standard-LAMs-based platesetters, and work equally well in either a standard digital or flat-top dot workflow.—http://cyrel.dupont.com/na
Plate Exposure Unit
Flint Group's nyloflex® NExT exposure technology produces precisely defined surfaces on flat-top dots, resulting in high print quality with excellent ink laydown. The technology uses high-intensity UV LEDs to react instantaneously with the photopolymer plate, which virtually eliminates oxygen inhibition without extra process steps or additional consumable items such as inert gas or film.—www.flintgrp.com
Plate for UV Inks
MacDermid Printing Solutions has introduced UVR, a digital flexo printing plate designed specifically for use with UV inks. UVR is swell-resistant in aggressive UV inks and provides low dot gain and excellent resolution. It is a 55 durometer plate that has excellent drape to allow it to wrap around a narrow web cylinder with smaller repeats, reducing the risk of plate lift. UVR can be dual-processed, either in conventional solvents or in MacDermid's LAVA Thermal Platemaking System. It is commercially available in thicknesses of 0.045˝ and 0.067˝, and in format sizes up to 52 x 80 inches.—www.printing.macdermid.com
Endurance Plates
xpedx has expanded its Endurance brand to include printing plates. Endurance Printing Plates will be offered as part of the company's portfolio of printing papers, media, equipment, and other consumables available through more than 75 distribution centers across the country. xpedx Endurance Printing Plates are manufactured by Fujifilm. In addition to the no-bake plates, Endurance is also positioned with printing plates that offer process-free and violent photopolymer technology. xpedx distributes and services the platesetters and processors that support the Endurance Printing Plates system.—www.xpedx.com
Platesetter Automation
Heidelberg's Suprasetter series of CtP imaging systems provide versatile application options, higher productivity, and lower environmental impact. A small processor for the Suprasetter 105 ACL/DCL helps to cut chemical and power consumption, while the fully automatic Auto/Dual Cassette Loader (ACL/DCL) plate-loading unit provides additional automation for the Suprasetter 105 and Suprasetter A105. The cassette compartments and a conveyor are integrated into the system, thereby reducing space requirements by up to 45 percent.—www.us.heidelberg.com
Plate Certification
Kodak has launched a certification program for its KODAK FLEXCEL NX System that is designed to assure printers and brand owners that KODAK FLEXCEL NX plates are made to a global standard. The certification process is supported by comprehensive data measurement and recommendations from satisfied clients.—www.kodak.com/go/flexcelnx
