Flexo Trade School dedicates Harper Lab of Flexography

This fall, approximately 50 industry professionals joined Art and Shae Fields, owners of the Flexographic Trade School (FTS), in Fort Mill, South Carolina, to honor Ron and Katherine Harper with the dedication of the school’s new Harper Lab of Flexography. The Harpers and Harper Corporation have been strong supporters of FTS since it founding in Charlotte eight years ago.

‘Dedicating this lab to Ron and Katherine Harper is so appropriate,’ said Art Fields. ‘I can honestly say no one has put more into putting people into the flexographic industry than Mr and Mrs Harper. We’re thrilled to honor them today with the dedication of this lab facility. Their dedication to flexo education is absolutely inspiring.’

‘Katherine and I are very proud to be here today, and we are proud to be associated with the Flexographic Trade School,’ said Ron Harper. ‘Art and Shae have built a truly amazing institution here that benefits the flexo industry in so many ways. We are delighted to be a part of it, and very pleased to provide $50,000 in scholarship funds to FTS students over the next five years.’

The school’s new Harper Flexo Lab is a well-appointed pressroom, boasting state-of-the-art equipment. The lab includes a variety of Mark Andy products, including two new 10’ 8-color presses, a 10’ 830 converting system, a 17’ VSR300 slitter/rewinder and a 17’ VSR300D die cutter/slitter/rewinder. It also features a AAA Lightouch UV curing system with eight stations, an American Die Technology hot stamp unit, an Amagic cold foil unit, a Lederle tabletop rewinder, a Cyrel digital imager, a Dupont Cyrel Fast 1000TD thermal developer, a Dupont Cyrel fast exposure unit, five G5 Mac computers, and a spectrodensitometer as well as a spectrophotometer from X-Rite, to name just some of the pressroom’s machinery.

In addition to providing flexo education and training for students, FTS is the commissioned training and research center for its 140 member companies. Supported by more than 40 leading vendor sponsors, FTS’s International Training and Research Center offers its converter members and vendors a facility for advancing their business technologies. The school’s students run live production work commissioned by members. The result is a flexo community that benefits from a graduate pool with experience in a live production environment. In return, graduating students enjoy a 100 percent job placement rate.

Picture: Ron and Katherine Harper present a check to Art Fields, co-owner and program director of the Flexographic Trade School, to support the school’s new Harper Lab of Flexography