Huhtamäki invests in nyloflex Xpress Thermal System

Huhtamäki’s main challenge is consistency in print quality, despite the variations on the printed substrate and with its previous plate making equipment reaching the end of life cycle, the company decided to invest in a more efficient and environmentally friendly replacement. After an extensive market research, the company decided to invest in a complete Flint Group plate making technology, consisting of the nyloflex Xpress Thermal System, nyloflex Exposure F IV ECLF, nyloflex XPM thermal printing plates and a ThermoFlexX 60.

‘It was a great match for our current needs. The high print quality, the solvent free system and practically no VOCs were very compelling arguments. Flint Group has a very professional way of working, delivering excellent solutions serving our needs,’ commented Erno Virkki, production manager at Huhtamäki.

The nyloflex Xpress Thermal System F IV, consumes up to 88 percent less electricity than competitive thermal systems due to the short-wave IR preheating system. Therefore, no chiller or a vapor handling system is required. It takes only 45 minutes to develop a high-quality thermal plate from imaging to finishing. VOC emissions are nearly eliminated, while up to 30 percent less fabric is used in the developer rolls contributing to the sustainability efforts of Huhtamäki.

‘We at Huhtamäki have been extremely satisfied with Flint Groups support during the equipment renewal project, including installation, training and scaling up the production manufacturing. Everything went great with seamless collaboration from start to the end of the project. By installing the nyloflex Xpress Thermal System, the response time to our production needs is significantly faster. Producing a plate takes less than one hour. With the old equipment, the response time was one full day, so we see a massive improvement in productivity.

‘Our focus points are green values, environmental friendliness, green PE and sustainability. Products with no plastic are currently important drivers and the importance of these aspects will further grow in the future. With the nyloflex Xpress Thermal System we can meet these ecological requirements. The installation of the equipment and training of our employees with the Flint Group team was going very smoothly and in a record time. We have now been running this solution a couple of months and are very satisfied. The printing quality is great, and we have not faced any issues within our production,’ concluded Virkki.