Is Analog’s Time Running Out?
Analog platemaking still has a solid installed base, but make no mistake, the growth is in digital.
March 2008 by Jean-Marie Hershey
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Trends in flexo platemaking reflect two things: the dwindling number of users who favor analog workflows over digital and those who already have made the transition to digital—and never looked back. Trends in digital flexo platemaking shake out between users who prefer solvent-based workflows and those who have already made, or are seriously contemplating, the switch to thermal.
In the world of flexo platemaking, options are proliferating. By the time “The Greatest Show On Earth” rolls in and out of Düsseldorf this spring, flexo shops will have more choices than ever to help them achieve the results they want.
Advantage: Digital
According to Ian Hole, VP of market development for EskoArtwork, whose line of Cyrel Digital Flexo Plate Imagers (CDI) is the result of a technology partnership with DuPont, “We have passed the stage where people have to ask whether digital flexo is worth it.” The fact is digital workflows are slowly gaining dominance over analog for reasons of time, productivity, and performance.
“Trade shops want the advantages of digital technology because their customers, the converters, do,” explains Paul Merkel, director, global product management for MacDermid. “The benefits of using a digital workflow, as well as the enhanced print quality of the digital plates, carry through from the trade shop to the converter and ultimately its customer, the package buyer. That said, although today’s carbon-masked digital plates offer higher quality and greater tonal range than analog plates, the entire printing process—from fingerprinting and prepress to press, anilox, ink, and substrates—must be properly aligned to take maximum advantage of the digital plates’ capabilities.”
Greater than half of DuPont’s platemaking business is digital, explains Ray Bodwell, marketing manager, DuPont Packaging Graphics. “Even the corrugated world is digital, and what has driven it there isn’t quality. Instead, it’s the nature of digital platemaking itself: it yields a very consistent dot, which ultimately means that press makeready will be easier. When you compare flexo press makeready times with offset and gravure, for example, you see that flexo makereadies were always more challenging.” This is not to say that it isn’t possible to make a high-quality plate using analog technology, Bodwell cautions, only that the flat-top, sharp-edged analog dots demand that impression settings be, and stay, precise.
Advantage: Thermal
The most common process used today in flexo platemaking is still solvent-based solid photopolymer, despite double-digit annual growth on the thermal side. In contrast, thermal technology uses heat and pressure to wick away the uncured photopolymer. Speed and elimination of VOCs are thermal’s primary benefit; the technology can reduce the individual plate-making cycle time dramatically, all while eliminating the use of solvents. However, “if neither of these are critical to your business, you will not make the investment,” Merkel says, citing the large number of printers throughout Latin America and Asia whose business models, current practices, and environmental regulations do not drive them to eliminate the use of solvents.
In the world of flexo platemaking, options are proliferating. By the time “The Greatest Show On Earth” rolls in and out of Düsseldorf this spring, flexo shops will have more choices than ever to help them achieve the results they want.
Advantage: Digital
According to Ian Hole, VP of market development for EskoArtwork, whose line of Cyrel Digital Flexo Plate Imagers (CDI) is the result of a technology partnership with DuPont, “We have passed the stage where people have to ask whether digital flexo is worth it.” The fact is digital workflows are slowly gaining dominance over analog for reasons of time, productivity, and performance.
“Trade shops want the advantages of digital technology because their customers, the converters, do,” explains Paul Merkel, director, global product management for MacDermid. “The benefits of using a digital workflow, as well as the enhanced print quality of the digital plates, carry through from the trade shop to the converter and ultimately its customer, the package buyer. That said, although today’s carbon-masked digital plates offer higher quality and greater tonal range than analog plates, the entire printing process—from fingerprinting and prepress to press, anilox, ink, and substrates—must be properly aligned to take maximum advantage of the digital plates’ capabilities.”
Greater than half of DuPont’s platemaking business is digital, explains Ray Bodwell, marketing manager, DuPont Packaging Graphics. “Even the corrugated world is digital, and what has driven it there isn’t quality. Instead, it’s the nature of digital platemaking itself: it yields a very consistent dot, which ultimately means that press makeready will be easier. When you compare flexo press makeready times with offset and gravure, for example, you see that flexo makereadies were always more challenging.” This is not to say that it isn’t possible to make a high-quality plate using analog technology, Bodwell cautions, only that the flat-top, sharp-edged analog dots demand that impression settings be, and stay, precise.
Advantage: Thermal
The most common process used today in flexo platemaking is still solvent-based solid photopolymer, despite double-digit annual growth on the thermal side. In contrast, thermal technology uses heat and pressure to wick away the uncured photopolymer. Speed and elimination of VOCs are thermal’s primary benefit; the technology can reduce the individual plate-making cycle time dramatically, all while eliminating the use of solvents. However, “if neither of these are critical to your business, you will not make the investment,” Merkel says, citing the large number of printers throughout Latin America and Asia whose business models, current practices, and environmental regulations do not drive them to eliminate the use of solvents.
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