Taking It to the Next Level

By adding a new flexographic platemaking system, Trisoft Graphics can produce plates that rival gravure in quality.

Key to Trisoft’s success with the new FLEXCEL NX system has been its repeatability across different presses and long runs. “We’ve been testing the plates produced by the FLEXCEL NX,” says Zafra. “During these blind tests, we processed very complex and demanding jobs, and the FLEXCEL NX digital flexographic plates repeatedly produced excellent results from a variety of presses and multiple customers.” He adds that the ability to use these plates on any press adds flexibility and productivity. “The quality improvements are enormous,” says Zafra. “Our customers are more or less shocked by the initial results in quality. They are very enthusiastic since they can finally compete with gravure printing at flexographic prices.”

“This system uses offset imaging technology, along with a revolutionary thermal imaging layer, to transfer the image from the digital file to the plate, and in doing so, produces a true representation of each pixel in the digital file,” says John Anderson, flexo plates product manager, Americas, Packaging Products, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group (www.kodak.com). “This has allowed flexo printers to print with excellent repeatability and consistency at higher resolutiosn thatn traditional flexo, and achieve resolutions equal to that of offset or gravure class.”

Another advantage to adding this system to its arsenal include increased resolution. “Before the FLEXCEL NX System, the available flexo plates out on the market could go as high as 220 lines per inch (lpi),” asserts Zafra. “With [these] plates we can actually print up to 300 lpi with conventional screening as small as 20 micron dots with staccato screening and print successfully.”

Quality control

All of the plates Trisoft produces are made with a quality-control strip and a pass/fail mark to help ensure stability and repeatability on press and during prepress. Every plate is then measured and finally inspected for any flaws before the plates go out to its customers. Zafra says, “KODAK TRENDSETTER NX Platesetter is a very stable platform, and combined with the Kodak -FLEXCEL NX plates, our customers get one-to-one results from the one-bit tiff to the plates.” He adds that there is no dot sharpening and the system does not need a bump curve to hold the highlight dots. “With the use of stable plate like the NX and our technique, it helps ensure stability and repeatability,” Zafra concludes.

Anderson adds, “By making the image transfer 1:1 from the digital file to the plate, with a full tonal range using all 256 grey levels, the FLEXCEL NX system simplifies the calibration of the plates while increasing their consistency. Producing plates with much higher consistency levels assists printers with known plate properties coming to press, and that increases on-press consistency and performance.”

Taking it to the next level

Trisoft Graphics has been at the forefront of flexographic platemaking innovation on the West Coast for several years. With this new addition, contends Zafra, Trisoft will be among the first to make flexo plates that rival the quality of offset and gravure printing. 

“When we switched to the digital plates in early 2000, it made us very successful. It revolutionized the quality of flexo printing comparable to offset print quality,” Zafra states. “Now, with the Kodak FLEXCEL NX system, it seems like what we experienced in early 2000 will be repeated all over again. This is the next level of flexo printing, and it can even rival the gravure print quality, which was unheard of in the past.” pP

• MORE ON
• FLEXO PRINTING
• PLATES/PLATEMAKING