FTA Announces Fall Conference 2019 Session Details

BOHEMIA, NY—With 17 presentations detailing the start-to-finish creation of a high-quality, flexographically printed job, Fall Conference 2019 is a can’t-miss event and opportunity to see cutting-edge operator training. The event will take place Oct. 28-30 at the Sheraton Charlotte Hotel in Charlotte, NC.

“I believe with a singular focus, a technical conference has the ability to communicate important process information while keeping the audience focused,” said Program Chair Keith Nagle of Phoseon Technology. “You won’t necessarily look at the schedule before the conference to pick and choose which sessions to attend, because they all bring valuable information that culminates with a successfully printed piece.”

For those attendees who do want to see what’s in store on the schedule, the eight-session agenda is as follows:

• Defining the Race: Listen to a panel discussion led by the conference chair, where presenters mimic a pre-production meeting, dissect variables and obstacles encountered, discuss the design requirements, and identify the consumables and materials used.
• Empowering the Pit Crew: Virtual reality (VR) is gearing up to take a new role in press operator training. Learn how VR can provide cost-effective, zero-waste and scalable training, and then watch an instructor teach a new flexographer how to set up and run a virtual flexo press.



• Optimizing the Tools for the Race: Learn the importance of performing a print optimization to determine the prepress requirements, ink densities and press settings prior to fingerprinting. See what consumables were selected for the project, the attributes that led to their selection and how they performed on press.
• Rounding the Curves: Hear an explanation of the two fingerprints and their differences, then watch a live demonstration of a fingerprint run on a VR press. Discover how the fingerprint data is used in prepress and where the curves are applied in the RIP.
• Taking a Process Control Lap: Learn how utilizing a printer’s control target to print back to the values obtained during the fingerprint can enhance the quality of the characterization run. Explore how ICC profiles are used in prepress across all devices. And see a VR press perform the characterization run while printing back to values on the adjusted printer’s control target.
• Finding and Training Tomorrow’s Workforce: Hear a summary of FTA’s year-long and industry-wide workforce study’s findings, and the actionable items derived from it. Then, educators from a pair of FTA member technical educational institutions will discuss how their programs attempt to address those findings.
• Tuning-Up the Process: Get a look at several process improvement methodologies specific to flexography and see one put to the test by taking a deep dive into project data and determining what could have been done differently to add value to the process.
• The Winners Circle: The VR press is put into production mode and produces the final piece live. With samples in hand, watch an examination of the challenging print components—once considered too difficult for flexography—and discussion of modern techniques used today.

Register before Sept. 27 and save up to $400. Attendees with a recently expired or soon-to-expire FIRST Individual Certification receive a free renewal. Not a member? Join FTA today and received $100 off registration. Learn more about Fall Conference 2019.