Revo Team Drives Digital Flexo ‘Revolution’

As digital continues to challenge conventional narrow web press technology for short-run work, the longer term question arises: how is conventional print going to survive, given the continued trend towards ever shorter runs?

Federico d’Annunzio, president and co-founder of narrow web press manufacturer Nuova Gidue, is unwilling to give up on what he sees as a battle with digital. ‘Digital has set the bar to a different level,’ says d’Annunzio. ‘We are presenting an alternative to digital for converters who buy into this new value proposition.’

d’Annunzio has spent the last two years working on a Digital Flexo concept which starts from the idea that if you can automatically control the key variables of flexography, a converting platform could handle short runs with the same waste as digital, and with all the advantages of in-line converting. The first installation, covered by Labels & Labeling,

was at Adare Group and a Digital Flexo press was formally launched at Labelexpo Europe. The M5 press in Brussels was built around 7-color process printing, automated pressure and register setting and automated exchange of print cylinders on-the-run.

But to bring the concept to market, d’Annunzio saw the need to provide a complete turnkey solution which converters could buy ‘off-the-shelf’, in which all elements from pre-press to anilox, plates and inks were fully standardized, allowing converters to take full advantage of the automation on the press.