Flexo Printing | FTA Honors 2018's Top Print Jobs
- Published: May 07, 2018
Six earn Best of Show awards in the Flexographic Technical Assn. competition.
The Flexographic Technical Assn., Bohemia, NY, announced the winners of the 2018 Excellence in Flexography Awards during a banquet at the association’s Forum & INFOFLEX events, taking place May 6-9, in Indianapolis, IN. Winners consisted of 38 Gold awards, 39 Silver awards, 33 Bronze awards, 3 Self Promotion awards, and 1 Non-Traditional award.
Also presented were awards for Technical Innovation and Sustainability. In addition, FTA honored two industry professionals with Hall of Fame and a President's Award.
Best Of Show
Six of the 38 Gold award recipients were selected as best of show designees. Here is a look at these top prize winners.
TECHNICAL INNOVATION AWARDS
In the Prepress Graphics category, a 2018 Technical Innovation Award went to Hamillroad Software Ltd. for its Bellissima Digitally Modulated Screening (DMS). This software dramatically improves flexography’s quality and minimizes common “hardware” issues like press bounce, making it a very strong contender against both digital and gravure printing. It is targeted to address both barring and slurring. The software produces near-perfect flat tines, sharp tinted text, and sharp reverse tinted text.
In the Prepress–Pressroom category, a 2018 Technical Innovation Award was given to Eaglewood Technologies for its Sitexco Laser Anilox Cleaning System. This machine uses a laser to clean everything down to the microscopic cells of anilox rollers without creating any waste or using consumables, and it logs the data to provide a comprehensive overview of inventory. Even further, the system’s power consumption ranges from 1.8-kW to 2.5k-W per hour, which is less than a major household appliance.
SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
FTA’s recipient of the 2018 Sustainability Excellence Award is Heritage Envelopes Ltd. for PackMail, an alternative packing solution for envelopes. This award is given to companies for exceptional efforts in developing innovative, processes, products, and management approaches that have had a positive impact on the three mainstays of sustainability – people, planet, and profit.
PackMail is “boxless” packaging for shipping and storing envelopes to mail inserting companies by bounding product between two rigid cardboard ends with film wrap. This design keeps envelopes flat and safe from damage, reduces the environmental footprint, cuts back on the amount of waste from packaging, storing, handling, and lowers transportation, CO2 output and fuel consumption.
Already, approximately 750 million envelopes have shipped using this new solution in the U.K. and Heritage plans to increase production by 50% in 2018. Expansion into new territory like the U.S. is already in the works. It is currently sourcing engineering and packaging materials partners in the U.S. to keep the environmental footprint to a minimum, while supporting the American manufacturing industry.
HALL OF FAME
FTA inducted its 56th member, Lon Robinson, into its Hall of Fame. Following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, Lon is a third generation Tension Corp. employee. He started as a pressman trainee and over the past 39 years has worked his way up to ink technician, print lead, and then moved into prepress where he held various roles as technician, lead, and manager. After becoming composing lead, he was a technical assistant for seven years before advancing to director of technology. Finally, in 2012 he earned the role director of research and development, where he remains today.
Lon has served on the FTA board of directors and FFTA board of trustees. He is the recipient of the 2012 President’s Award and chaired the Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications & Tolerances (FIRST) Committee for two years. He co-chaired Fall Conference 2015 and has spoken at multiple Forums and Fall Conferences as well. Over the years, he has judged entries in the Technical Innovation and Excellence in Flexography Awards and has served on the Awards Committee, where he will become the committee chair at Forum 2018.
PRESIDENT’S AWARD
Jason Cagle, MacDermid Graphics Solutions, was recognized with FTA President’s Award. At the onset of his college career at Clemson University, Jason already displayed the characteristics of an engaging role model as leader of the school’s 2012 Phoenix Challenge team. He went on to accomplish a long list of achievements within the industry while at school, including providing his skills on the 2014 FLEXO Magazine Cover Project, repeating that feat in 2017 while at MacDermid. He was the first-place recipient of the 2015 FFTA Rossini North America Flexographic Research Scholarship.
In 2016, Jason completed a trifecta of achievements, graduating from Clemson, presenting his research results at Forum and starting his career at MacDermid, where he is an application development specialist based out of Atlanta, GA. Jason is an active member of FTA and is currently the chair of the Emerging Leaders Committee, which is something he has been a part of since its inception.
