ACM Italy ATIF Awards win for UV flexo printing and flexographic process

Sustainability efforts recognized for outstanding in-house flexographic printing

ACM Italy double ATIF Awards win

ACM Italy double ATIF Awards win

ACM has been recognized with two awards by the Italian flexographic association, Associazone Tecnica Italiana per la Flessografia (ATIF), for outstanding flexographic printing.

Founded in 2005, ACM, a subsidiary of the SIT Group, is one of Europe’s leaders in flexible packaging, with experience in digital and flexographic printing, supplying film reel, bags, pouches and more.

ACM won the best UV flexo printing award following technology developed in collaboration with customer, GOO. ACM printed in 80 l/cm screen ruling using 8-color printing on a 12-micron PET film printed on an Omet XFlex 670 with platemaking on the latest Esko Crystal XPS and the water-wash Asahi AWP-DEW plate.

ACM also scooped a second award for flexographic process innovation. This award was granted for the application of cold foil inline using Asahi’s AWP-DEW CleanPrint water wash plate to transfer the adhesive glue before applying the cold foil inline. This job was previously realised using letterpress technology.

The award ceremony was held during ATIF’s annual trade association meeting in November in Bologna, Italy.

The founder of ACM, Massimo Raffaele, said: ‘It was my dream to start a prepress department with in-house reproduction and platemaking for higher quality and faster reaction time to customer deadlines. The project was led by Fabrizio Marchetti, our prepress director, and incorporates an ESKO Crystal XPS plate imaging system using Asahi AWP-DEW CleanPrint plates. Our decision to move platemaking in-house and the terrific work Marchetti has done in heading up this effort has been validated by feedback from satisfied customers and these two prestigious awards.’

Marchetti selected Asahi AWP-DEW CleanPrint plates is in line with the company’s goal of integrating solvent-free platemaking technologies into its operations to lower CO2 emissions. He adds: ‘The AWP-DEW plate is the perfect plate to help us meet these goals and performs well with all the existing printing ink technologies, including water, solvent and UV inks. I am thrilled that the efforts of our team have delivered against expectations and garnered these awards.’ 

Award judges commented on the very clean highlight printing with optimum ink laydown, perfect registration and a good match to Cromalin proofs.

Asahi recently achieved Carbon Neutral status in partnership with The Carbon Trust for the AWP-DEW CleanPrint plates and is spearheading a carbon management plan by rethinking the plate manufacturing process from the ground up.

‘We are seeing a growing number of flexographic printers like ACM bringing prepress in house to better manage quality and time to market,’ says Dieter Niederstadt, Asahi’s technical marketing manager. ‘We congratulate them on receiving these prestigious awards and are looking forward to working with them in the future to find ways to improve their prepress services even more.’