Through the Years
Some 25 years after its founders uttered those words, members of the same group paused to assess FTA’s progress.
It was 1983 when Isadore Goodman proclaimed, “As a charter member of FTA, at its inception, I consider my affiliation with this group to be one of the highlights of my career… Not only did I enjoy the experience of meeting craftsmen in the printing trade, all with a wealth of knowledge to share, I also appreciate the warm feeling of friendship and kinship which prevails.”
John Miller offered this reflection: “It may pique our imagination to wonder why our fathers founded the FTA, but it boggles our intellect to consider the results. From a crude, despised, automated ‘rubber stamp,’ we’ve leaped to a quality method that is sweeping over the big three like an incoming tide. Well justified in their growing alarm that no market area is safe from this young giant. Amazing progress just considered by itself! To have accomplished so much, it’s incredible.”
For his part, Frank Hamel spoke directly to the record. “FTA’s board and committees are quick to offer technical leadership and have been the catalyst for supplier and printer cooperation. Since its inception in 1958, FTA has fulfilled with distinction, its mandate of providing the major forum for the exchange of technical information within the flexographic industry.”
One young man, who came on the scene in the midst of those first 25 years, and later rose to chair one of FTA’s boards, was Bob Mullen, a long-time Sun Chemical executive. He revealed, “I have been completely retired from the industry since 2018 and am proud to say that I still read every issue of FLEXO Magazine. When I started my career in 1976, I would leave my initial job in the Cleveland lab at lunch or break and read what was then a two-to-three-page leaflet from Doug Tuttle and others regarding the beginnings of aniline printing and aniline inks.
“Those visionaries saw a future for a printing process that was scoffed at for years by the historic roto and offset houses. ‘Flexography is block printing for absorbent substrates and will never match our ability to reproduce high-quality graphics,’ they would say. And then, little by little, improved presses, plates, separations, inks and processes were introduced by forward-thinking individuals and companies and always backed and promoted by FTA.”
Mullen added, “I was proud to be able to witness these changes and call some of these people my friends. I look forward to seeing the continued development of the process, the industry and our respected Association—FTA.”
Again looking back, this time on the occasion of the organization’s 60th anniversary in 2018, current board member, and then FORUM Chair Bob Coomes, PPC Flexible Packaging, noted, “We wouldn’t be experiencing growth and opportunity without FTA’s influence. The Association has provided a pipeline of information and resources via its membership, which has driven improvements and innovations within our industry. FTA keeps pace with the trends within the industry and is continually looking forward to keep us in the know.”
He continued, “FTA’s biggest contribution to our industry, FIRST, has been the beacon for optimization and standardization for flexography. Years ago, it was like the ‘Wild West’ with long press setups, subjective approvals and inconsistency of color from run to run. Today, we can match the proof at press with one pull, without any adjustments and consistently reproduce it every time. This has been achieved by training and following the principles of FIRST throughout the process—from graphics to prepress to print production.”
Later that same year, Fall Conference Chair Kevin Bourquin, Cyber Graphics, maintained, “FTA has been instrumental in providing a safe space for companies that want to collaborate and share to help the betterment of the industry. Flexography has come a long way in the last 60 years, especially in the last 20, where the industry has been transformed into a high-quality, competitive, primary print choice for packaging.”
Elaborating on the point, he said, “From educational to networking programs, FTA has helped foster relationships and manage constant industry change. FIRST Certifications help bring into our industry and develop new talent, something that will be extremely important as the next generation of labor is introduced into the workforce. Using FIRST keeps industry best practices at the forefront of the supply chain to ensure CPC customers are delivered a consistent product across all their different package types. And events like FORUM each year offer a place to share and vet out new research from the university or R&D level, while allowing other suppliers to build upon these developments.”
FTA Hall of Fame Member Dave Horsman has been a member of FTA’s network for better than 50 years. As such, his assessment is far reaching. “One of the most memorable things I did in my life was join the FTA—first through my employers and then when I started my own business, Canflexographics Inc. To me, FTA presented us with an opportunity to share technology with each other for the betterment of our industry. The results are incredible, considering that when I started in 1969, we were an offshoot of letterpress and had limitations on what we could print and market.
“I recall my first workshop in 1971 and the knowledge I got that day from the speakers, the Q&A, and talking with other pressroom folks in the various hospitality rooms afterward—it was this experience that probably got me hooked and set my course to become a lifer.
“I wrote an article about 20 years ago and made the bold statement that I don’t think there was any print job that flexo could not print better, or as well as, gravure and litho. As I have witnessed these past few years, we have truly become a science and are getting away from being artists. Challenges back then were centered on being able to recreate exactly a print job like it was run previously. Equipment and the technology that has been developed makes that pretty simple these days.”
He asked, “Has it made the packaging and converting trade better?” Then answered, “Without a doubt—Without flexo, those industries would not have grown to their potential as the flexo process was, and for the most part is, a key ingredient in developing point-of-purchase packaging in a cost-efficient way.
“FTA has been a key part of my life professionally, as well as personally,” Horsman remarked. “I was able to garner many mentors, teachers and inspirers from the people I met through FTA and many of them have become lifelong friends that I truly love.”