TOKYO, Japan & BRUSSELS, Belgium—Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, announced it will be attending EskoWorld for the first time. Asahi will be located in the Innovation Center at the show, scheduled for June 5 – 7 at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa in San Antonio, Texas.
“In our fast-paced and rapidly evolving industry, efficiency, waste reduction and speed to market are critical,” said Stephan Doppelhammer, Asahi Photoproducts Europe business development manager. “By partnering with Esko, we bring together solutions from two world-class companies to create a faster, more efficient and more consistent workflow in flexographic plate making. Esko’s Equinox is ideal for converting separations to fixed palette printing, while Esko’s Crystal technology reduces the number of plate making steps required and is making the process more consistent. By adding Asahi’s AWP water washable plates with Clean Transfer Technology to the mix, Asahi and Esko customers can take overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) to a brand-new level of efficiency while boosting print quality and reducing their environmental footprint.”
Voice of the Customer
Gateway Packaging, a high-end printer/packaging converter and one of the largest pet food packaging providers in North America, recently restructured its entire plate making process with Asahi Photoproducts solutions as the core element. The company performed extensive testing that led up to the final decision.
“When running the Asahi AWP Clean Transfer plates,” explained Tharrin Akers, the company’s prepress manager, “we were able to run the press at a 17 percent higher speed—1,640 fpm—and only had to stop for plate cleaning once. And that only required cleaning two plates, consuming 20 minutes. The result was a total production time of 7.2 hours instead of 11 hours in the past and an astonishing 53 percent improvement in OEE over our previous process.”
A feature of many of Asahi’s flexographic printing plates, Clean Transfer Technology enables a clean ink transfer and prevents ink accumulating on the plate surfaces and shoulders in screen areas. This leads to fewer cleaning intervals and reduced press downtime, as well as significant quality improvements. Precise plate register achieved with Asahi AWP plates ensures very high quality process printing with a fixed color palette, minimizing the need to use and manage spot color inks.
Clean Transfer Technology allows a kiss-touch printing pressure setting. It makes use of low plate surface tension, made possible by a specially engineered Asahi polymer chemistry, to inhibit liquid flow. The ink forms a globule, with a large contact angle and high pinning point. This results in a cleaner and more homogeneous ink transfer from plate to substrate, helping flexographic printers meet the ever-increasing quality demands of their customers.