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Asahi Kasei Receives 2024 FTA Sustainability Excellence Award

Interest in sustainability from every member of the flexographic workflow, all the way to Consumer Product Companies and end customers, continues to grow.

The number of entries vying for the 2024 FTA Sustainability Excellence Award—the largest in the competition’s 20+ years—is the latest data point to support that observation.

These innovations in sustainability and sustainability programs show flexographic printers and suppliers putting sustainability front and center in their business’ day-to-day operations, in the products they produce, in their go-to-market strategies and in how they approach solving problems.

The award winners and honorable mentions in this year’s record-breaking competition are:

“This year’s FTA Sustainability Excellence Awards have seen an unprecedented number of entries, showcasing the industry’s dedication to sustainability like never before,” said FTA Sustainability Committee Chair Justin Green of Comexi. “The sheer volume is matched only by the outstanding quality of submissions, reflecting the commitment of companies towards environmentally conscious practices. It underscores the vital importance of sustainability in our industry, driving innovation and responsible stewardship for a better future.”

Asahi’s AFP-R Plate

The Asahi Photoproducts AFP-R flexographic printing plate—produced by Asahi Kasei’s Asahi Photoproducts Division—uses approximately 30 percent less solvent on average and requires half as much energy consumption during the plate making process. Plate production is more consistent with the AFP-R plate, and with Asahi’s CleanPrint technology, the plates need less pressure when on press.

As Asahi explains, taken together, this results in less waste and rework in the pressroom.

“AFP-R is a step along the road to Solvent ZERO, which is our philosophy for contributing to the printing and packaging industry by eliminating VOC-based washout plate making,” explains Aki Kato, managing executive, senior general manager of Asahi Photoproducts Division. “AFP-R also enables printers and repro houses to have a solution for considering an environmentally balanced approach through shorter tact for washout and drying time, and by using less solvent and electricity.”

According to Asahi, today’s flexographic plate making is overwhelmingly—roughly 70 percent—solvent-wash technology. Amidst a shift toward water-wash and thermal plate making driven by consumer and CPC environmental concerns, “no effort has been made by any plate supplier to accelerate a ‘bridging technology’ to reduce solvent consumption of the current 70 percent of existing solvent-wash equipment,” the company says. It was this observation that led to AFP-R’s development.

Chief among the differences between a standard solvent-wash plate and an AFP-R plate is the latter’s particle size and type in its polymer structure. Asahi images the conventional plate as milk chocolate, to AFP-R’s puffed rice chocolate. This extends to the washout process, where only the actual polymer in an AFP-R plate needs to dissolve.

“With these plates, our plate turnaround time is about an hour to an hour and a quarter faster, and we are using much less solvent. The washout and drying times are cut in half compared to other material we use,” reveals Tami Warlop, graphics manager at Excelsior Marking. “And I will say that the No. 1 thing we are seeing with the APR-R plates is the consistency. We rarely have to change the setting for the relief from box to box, which is huge for us. With other products we have tested, the exposure times may change for back exposure from batch to batch, costing us time and effort to get the quality we need.”

“A photopolymer plate that can be processed with less solvent and that requires less drying time is certainly innovative,” said one Sustainability Excellence Award judge. “This could present real benefits to improve solvent plates’ environmental impact.”