The FlexoKITE Technology Center, located at the Apex International manufacturing facility at Nashik, organized an open house focused on ‘Flexo Simplified with ECG’. Bringing the industry’s best innovation providers under one roof, the center is managed by Apex International along with its partners Avery Dennison, Bobst, Cosmo Films, DuPont, Esko, Flint, Numex, Swedcut, and Tesa.
FlexoKITE is a state of art, fully equipped flexo facility that was designed and set up to provide a supportive base for the flexo industry in Asia. Assisting with R&D testing and fine-tuning designs, printers can convert gravure or letterpress designs to flexo without impacting their own production environment or time. There is also the collective expertise within the partners to evaluate and resolve print issues and offer proven solutions to converters. It’s a workshop for the flexo industry, having Esko’s advanced screening software, DuPont’s Cyrel fast thermal plate processor, and Bobst’s M5 narrow web flexo press which is integrated with highly consistent Apex GTT anilox roll and Flint UV Force ink system.
During the event, Nick Harvey, technical director at Apex International, said, “FlexoKITE helps to access the highest level of technical knowledge within each of the partners. This combined solution delivers faster solutions, accelerated R&D and unparalleled support.” Harvey highlighted the advantages of Extended Color Gamut (ECG) to simplify the flexo process along with the historical limitation and failures of ECG in the past. For example, ink transfer and densities do not remain constant, anilox specifications are not always performing according to expectations, and the variability of CMYK from anilox to anilox and press to press.
“The advantages of ECG are significant with fewer ink recipes, no anilox changing and faster changeover, it doubles efficiency from 40% up to 80%,” said Harvey. “If done correctly, ECG will achieve higher resolution print with high quality and up to a 50% increase in production time, 30% less ink cost, 90% less wash up solvent cost, less tape, and less anilox, moving towards a greener and more sustainable solution. The successful path to ECG must be step by step, job by job.”
Four samples were produced on Bobst M5 narrow-web flexo printing press with Esko Crystal Screening Equinox; DuPont Thermal Fast EFXR flexo plates and Flint UV Force low-migration printing inks at the speed of 100 mpm during the open house.
The Open House included the factory visit of the world-class anilox manufacturing facility at Apex. It showcased the design workflow by Esko, pre-press plate making by DuPont, and samples produced on the Bobst M5 press at FlexoKITE experience center. The objective of these designs was to demonstrate how quickly jobs can be changed over and set up when ECG is adopted.
Karan Talwar, sales director – South Asia, Esko, said, “FlexoKITE has come up as a great world-class facility to help the flexo printing industry with the best of innovations from top solutions providers under one roof.”
Abhijit Ugar of Pune-based Ugar Labels said, “I found the open house to be informative as well as transformative. The Apex anilox rollers plant was a treat to watch. The pre-flight software and CTP from Esko, the nylon plate processor from DuPont and Bobst M5 all were equipment that any converter would long for. The demo was truly inspirational. To top it all, there were interactions among the industry people.”