Flexographic results ‘superior’ to gravure

Austrian prepress and platemaking specialist Repro Busek has said results from its Kodak Flexcel NX system are generating flexographic print quality that rivals gravure, even bettering it in some instances.
 
Repro Busek has 40 years’ experience in prepress and platemaking, and in 2005 moved into new premises and invested in new technology for manufacturing continuous flexo sleeves. It has also extended its service portfolio to include consulting, design development and printing supervision.
 
As a result it has added more brand owners to its client base and is working to maintain and build that market with its range of services designed to ensure brand uniformity and standardize quality.
 
This has been aided by the installation of the Kodak Flexcel NX technology in June 2011, the company said. The platemaking process starts with thermal ablative imaging of the Flexcel NX thermal imaging layer in the Flexcel NX mid imager.
 
The Kodak Flexcel NX imagers use Squarespot imaging technology at an effective resolution of 10,000dpi to enable printing dots as small as 10 microns, allowing subtle highlight detail, vignettes that fade to zero and use of all available grey levels, and because of the one-to-one image reproduction and the flat-top dots, none of that detail is lost from the beginning to the end of a print run.
 
Repro Busek opted for a Flexcel NX mid imager, which images a maximum plate size of 1143 x 838mm in about six minutes, far faster any other imaging system installed on the premises.

 
The imaging layer is laminated onto the Flexcel NX plate in the Flexcel NX laminator in a purely mechanical process, without having to apply heat. Exposure of the surface to air is prevented by the laminated thermal imaging layer, so that oxygen inhibition and the undesirable side-effects on the photopolymer plate are eliminated. The UVA pre and main exposure subsequently take place in normal imagers. After removing the thermal imaging layer at high-speed, the plate is washed and processed further in the usual way.
 
Repro Busek sales manager Reinhard Deim said: ‘Brand owners and printers are astonished when I show them the flexographic print quality we’re achieving with the Kodak Flexcel NX system.
 
‘It’s the biggest quality leap I’ve seen in more than 30 years in the profession. The Flexcel NX plates give us results that rival gravure in every respect – and in many case are superior.
 
‘Without exception, every printer I’ve spoken to has had a huge smile on his face, as if he’d just won an Olympic gold medal and broken the world record for quality. In the past, print shops had to fork out a lot of money to see a significant increase in quality. Customers are delighted with the plates we produce with the Flexcel NX system. Even with low-priced substrates, the potential to improve quality is remarkable.’
 
Deim concluded: ‘If quality is your primary concern, there’s no longer a valid reason to choose gravure. The Flexcel NX system matches up to gravure quality – and it’s often a very one-sided match in flexo’s favour.’