Reporter Clips
- Published: October 01, 2001, By Edward Boyle, Contributing Editor
Narrow Web Converting Industry News
Avery Dennison Joins Flexo Consortium
PASADENA, CA, USA—Avery Dennison has become the latest substrate sponsor of the High Definition Flexo Consortium (HDFE), a non-profit trade association comprising equipment manufacturers, consumables suppliers, and printing service providers that are dedicated to promoting the advantages and technological advances of flexography directly to print buyers.
Flexo Fair Makes Splash with Packaging Printers
MILFORD, OH, USA—The recently acquired Comco product division of Mark Andy Inc. held a “Summer Flexo Fair” at its Advanced Training and Technology Center in Milford.
The fair was the fourth installment in the Educator Seminar Series. Intended to educate packaging buyers, printers, and converters on the diverse range of narrow web flexo applications, this season's program focused on expanding opportunities in the folding carton and flexible packaging markets.
The fair drew more than 350 industry participants from 68 companies in 14 countries, marking the series' largest audience to date. Attendees participated in two days of presentations, tabletop exhibits, and equipment demos from some flexo industry experts and machinery and consumables vendors.
The main attraction of the seminar was an afternoon tour of the Comco brand manufacturing facility featuring live makereadies, production run printing, and complete job changeovers on a pair of ProGlide MSPs.
For more information contact: 513/248-1600. Visit Mark Andy at markandy.com.
Inspection System Means Faster Speeds, Higher Quality
GRIMSBY, U.K.—Since Ultimate Packaging, a flexographic printing and converting operation, installed an Advanced Vision Technology (AVT) PrintVision/Genesis automatic web inspection system, it has reported dramatic increases in press speed and print quality.
The PrintVision/Genesis, designed for narrow webs, provides immediate notification of process defects. This has enabled Ultimate to minimize waste, maintain quality, and run its press much faster for increased productivity, says operations director Jon A. Fletcher.
According to Fletcher, “The quality and consistency achieved with the AVT system has been phenomenal. Since installation in September 2000, our confidence in our press has grown dramatically, allowing customers to benefit from more consistent high quality print with a quicker turnaround.”
Ultimate Packaging's AVT system provides improved quality, ease of use, and a degree of inspection never before available to packaging and labels printers using smaller presses, according to Fletcher. Press operators determine the tolerance levels for the job in each of five types of print defects, including spotting, streaking, misregister, color variation, and misprints. Set-up time for the PrintVision/Genesis is said to be less than 1 min.
As approved flexible packaging suppliers to nearly all of the U.K.'s food supermarkets, quality, speed, and print consistency are key to Ultimate. That is why, says the company, it purchased the first U.K. Schiavi Alpha eight-color gearless flexo press. The press has a web width of 1,150 mm and speeds of 350 mpm, with recent figures showing production of 10 million m in just 2 mo. For clients such as Sainsbury, Tesco, Asda, and Iceland, Ultimate prints on a variety of substrates including polyester, PP, PE, and metallized foils. Substrate thickness ranges from 17-120 microns.
Supplier Information
AVT Ltd., Hod-Hasharon, Israel; +972 9 761 4477; avt-inc.com
Schiavi SpA, Piacenza, Italy; +39 (0) 523 493 1; bobstgroup.com
