Miraclon, home of Kodak Flexcel Solutions, has opened its new flexo plate manufacturing line in Weatherford, Oklahoma, two and a half years after breaking ground on the project. Initially manufacturing flexographic plates for customers in the United States, Canada and Latin America, the new manufacturing line will enable the company to keep up with demand after seeing double digit Flexcel NX plate volume growth for the past five years.
Chris Payne, Miraclon CEO, says, “This is a momentous occasion for Miraclon. Just six months after our spin-out from Kodak, we mark one of our first major milestones with the completion of this project. While it demonstrates Miraclon’s ongoing commitment to invest in and expand the market for flexographic printing, the second manufacturing facility also brings source of supply closer to a large portion of our customer base and expands the manufacturing footprint of Flexcel NX Plates to two sites.”
The Weatherford plate manufacturing line, a sister operation to the company’s existing plate manufacturing facility in Yamanashi, Japan, was designed to meet increasing industry demand for high quality flexographic printed packaging with more cost effective and efficient production processes. The US$ 15 million investment underscores the ongoing industry growth and adoption of Kodak Flexcel NX Plates. The new line produced its first Kodak Flexcel NX plate in October 2018, after which rigorous testing and alignment with the Yamanashi facility began to ensure the state-of-the-art manufacturing technology delivers the same high performance and quality Miraclon customers have come to trust and expect.