New Innovations in Plates and Sleeves Rich Emmerling Technical Manager [email protected] 770-366-5689 Rich Emmerling Technical Manager [email protected]

New Innovations in Plates and Sleeves

Rich EmmerlingTechnical [email protected]


Flint Group

Flexographic ProductsComprehensive Expertise

in Flexographic Printing

3

Flint Group:

Powerful Roots

4

Flint Group History • November 2004 CVC acquired ANI Inks and BASF Printing

Systems.

• September 2005 XSYS acquired Flint Ink, a privately owned company with operations in USA, Europe, Latin America, Asia and India/Pacific.

• Integration of these businesses lead to creation of Flint Group, number two ink supplier worldwide.

• In 2007 Day International was integrated into Flint Group.

• 2008 Flint Group Printing Plates and rotec became Flint Group Flexographic Products.

5

Flint Group Overview

• 2011 Sales: €2.2 billion (US$ 3 billion)

• Number of employees: 6 900

• >170 company sites in over 40 countries

• Global network of partners and distributors

6

Flint Group Locations Worldwide

7

Flint Group – Business Segments

Flint Group’s products are everywhere in our daily life and

can be split into two segments:

Packaging Products Print Media Products

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Flint Group – Products

Packaging Print Media

Europe Americas Asia-PacificPackaging and Narrow Web

Flexographic Products

• Packaging inks

• Inks for labels and other narrow web printing applications

• Sleeves and adapters for flexo and offset printing

• Photopolymer printing plates for flexo and letterpress applications

• Processing equipment

• Printing inks forheatset, coldset, sheetfed, gravure and specialty printing

• Lithographic printing blankets and sleeves

• Pressroom chemicals

• Pigments

9

Flexographic Products - Extensive Product Range

Sleeves and adapters

Printing plates for • Flexible packaging• Label printing• Corrugated

(Pre- and postprint)

Ready-to-image ITR Sleeves

Processing equipment

Washout solvents

Printing plates for • Label printing• Tubes, cups and tins printing• Security printing• Pad printing• Embossing & hot moulding

Processing equipment

rotec®

nyloflex®

nylosolv®

nyloprint®

10

Worldwide Presence

Main Offices• Germany, Stuttgart*

Subsidiaries • Australia• Brazil• China*• Denmark• France• Netherland• Spain• UK• USA*

Production sites

• Plates, equipment and washout solvents

• Germany, Willstätt**

• Sleeves and adapters • Germany, Ahaus**

• Czech Republic, Chrastava • USA, Asheville

Distributorsin more than 100 countries

* holding Technical Center

** holding R&D Center

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Market Shares World 2011:Photopolymer Printing Plates

Data Source: internal estimations

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Market Shares World 2011: Sleeves

Flint Group 42%

Rossini32%

AKL7%

others5%xymid

4%

Polywest10%

Flint Group

Rossini

Polywest

AKL

xymid

others

Data Source: internal estimations

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Topics

• The NEW nyloflex® ACE: The Benchmark for High Quality Flexo

• nyloflex® NExT Exposure Technology: High Definition, Flat Top Dots & Surface Screening

• Improvements With Solid Ink Density

• High Opacity Values Using Less Ink

• Fit For Flat Top Dot Technology

Introducing

nyloflex® New ACE

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nyloflex® ACE - Why Change a Proven Winner?..

• Introduced in 2001 quickly becoming market standard for high quality print

• Confirmed by numerous print awards throughout the years

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nyloflex® ACE – What Could Be Improved?

Performance and Cost

• Better solvent resistance

• Improved ink transfer, fewer press stops

• Compatibility with new plate technologies

Press RoomPlate Room

Reliability and Productivity

• Higher quality ingredients

• Stable color, less tack improves handling and is more user friendly

• No change in pre-press necessary

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• 62 Shore A (DIN 53505), same as previous nyloflex® ACE

• Designed for solvent, water and UV curable flexographic inks

• Improved overall image quality and color stability, with a brighter green color

The NEW nyloflex® ACE – Physical Properties

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0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Linear ACE NEW ACE

Comparison of ACE and NEW ACE

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Dot Percent on Print

Dot Percent on Plate

Dot Percent in File

• Nearly identical dot area

• Can use same files

• Verified in 100+ trials

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The NEW nyloflex® ACE – Customers’ Feedback “As a leading printer of

confectionary bars we ran 1,500,000 ft and no cleaning

of the plates was needed.”

“…label printing job with the NEW nyloflex® ACE Digital ran 200,000 ft, no stops for cleaning were necessary.”

“A difficult hygiene packaging job 650,000 ft could be printed without stop for

cleaning - constant print quality over the whole

production run.”

“High speed flexible packaging job,

1,650,000 ft printed without cleaning.”

“110,000 ft diapers job with showed excellent ink transfer and the reduced ink consumption for

achieving target density.”

“We printed 1,000,000 ft of pet food bags without cleaning (normally

we stop to clean after 500,000 ft); We were

able to run the job 175 fpm faster and saved 7.5 hours in

press time!”

“We ran 70,000 lbs of film substrate on the potato

chips job with only one set of NEW nyloflex® ACE

Digital where previously we needed to replace the plates

after 30,000 lbs.”

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• Outstanding performance with HD Flexo screening

• Designed to work well with both digital Round Top Dots as well as Flat Top Dots

The NEW nyloflex® ACE –

nyloflex® NExT Exposure Technology

Improving Solid Ink Density Combining Plate and Surface Screening

Technologies

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Topics

• Surface Screening - Solid Ink Density

• Surface Screening – Opacity

• Flat Top Dot Approaches

• Fit For Flat Top Dot Plates

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• Basic advice: Optimize parameters• Harder plate cushion, more ink, substrate treatment, etc.

• Problem is that an improvement HERE may take away from THERE...

1.2 1.4

Improve SID and smoothness

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• Better method: Surface Screening

• In use for a long time

• Many versions throughout the years, but idea remains the same – textured plate

surface reduces mottle through better ink distribution and coverage

• Screenings historically 300 – 600 LPI

Use 90-97% Tint in Solids

Plate Cell Patterning Digicap Groovy Screening

Minimize or control mottle

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Reasons for Dot Shapes

• The oxygen effect during exposure of digital flexo plates

Conventional exposurewith film negative and UV-A tubes

UV

UV UV

UV

O2

O2O2

O2O2O2

O2O2

Dot reduction

Digital exposurewith LAMS-layer and UV-A tubes

Dot reductiondue to theoxygen effect

Dot gain

UV

UV UV

UV

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Reasons for Dot Shapes

• The oxygen effect during exposure of digital flexo plates

Conventional exposurewith film negative and UV-A tubes

UV

UV UV

UV

O2

O2O2

O2O2O2

O2O2

Tonwertreduktion

Digital exposurewith LAMS-layer and UV-A tubes

Dot reductiondue to theoxygen effect

UV

UV UV

UV

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2X2 PixelCheckerboard

1414 LPI @ 4000

Digital w/ O2 Flat Top

MicroCellMC8

800 LPI @ 4000

Ablated Mask

Plate with different surface screens

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Plate= SolidLow Screens

(<800 LPI)

Mid Screens

(800-000 LPI)

High Screens

(>1000 LPI)

Digital

with O2

1.32

+/- 0.09

1.43

+/- 0.15

1.30

+/- 0.13

1.30

+/- 0.12

Flat Top1.35

+/- 0.09

1.43

+/- 0.11

1.54

+/- 0.11

1.64

+/- 0.12

Print results

Based on 22 Print Trials

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Crosslinking w/o oxygen effect

Solid screening with oxygen effect Solid screening without oxygen effect

The Potential

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What About White Opacity?

Can Surface Screens Using Flat Top Dot Technology Improve Opacity With Solid Whites?

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Purpose Gain an understanding of the optimum plate

durometer, cushion tape and surface screening

parameters to maximize white opacity readings

at high press speeds.

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Plates (High Speed Test)Plates – Digital (0.067”)

• FAM D and ACE D (Flat Top Dot)Cushion Tape – (0.020”)

• 3M 1920, 3M 1020 and 3M 1820Surface Screening

• Microcell - 4000 DPI

• 17 Patterns One Smooth Solid

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Press Conditions

Press – Wide Web Flexible Packaging

Anilox – 220 lpi/9.0 bcm

Ink – Flint High Speed Surface White

Viscosity – 28 seconds

Press Speed – 1200 ft/min.

Substrate – Polyester

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Test Target

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High Values Of Plate And Tape

Opacity Values

62.5

63

63.5

64

64.5

65

65.5

66

FAM D 1920 FAM D 1020 FAM D 1820 ACE D 1920 ACE D 1020 ACE D 1820

Plate and Tape

% O

pac

ity

Contrast Ratio Function

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Values Ranked By Surface Screening Value

Opacity Percentages At All The Surface Screening Patterns

62.5

63

63.5

64

64.5

65

65.5

66

SS1

SS2

SS3

SS4

SS5

SS6

NOSS

SS8

SS9

SS10

SS11

SS12

SS13

SS14

SS15

SS16

SS17

SS18


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Second Test• Evaluate opacity using lower anilox volume and Flat Top Dot surface

screening parameters.

• Will there be a greater differences in opacity using lower anilox volumes?

• Will this reduce ink consumption while delivering acceptable opacity?

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Press Conditions

Press – Wide Web Flexible Packaging

Anilox – 440 lpi/5.5 bcm

Ink – High Speed Surface White

Viscosity – 28 seconds

Press Speed – 1200 ft/min.

Substrate – Polyester

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Opacity – ACE D & 3M 1820 Cushion Tape

MC 3X3C ACE D 3M 1820Opacity 64.1%

No Surface ScreeningACE D 3M 1820Opacity 60.8%

(440 lpi/5.5 bcm)


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1.76 1.741.59 1.54

64.163.5

64.5

64.1

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2.0

440/5.5 (FAM D) 220/9 (FAM D) 440/5.5 (ACE D) 220/9 (ACE D)

Co

atin

g W

eig

ht

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

Op

acit

y

No SS - Coating Weight SS - Coating Weight

No SS - Opacity SS - Opacity

Coating Weight and Opacity


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Conclusions

• Flat Top Dot technology allows for a greater

level of detail at the surface.

• Surface screening reduced pinholes and

increased the opacity.

• Increasing the modulus of the cushion tape

increased opacity.

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Conclusions

• Higher opacity levels were achieved using surface screening allowing for the use of lower anilox volumes and potentially eliminating the need for a double bump.

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FTD Approaches

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“Flat Top Dot” Technology

Film lamination on special CTP device similar to offset Trendsetter laser

Requires special laser, special film consumable, requires use of special Kodak plate material

Format up to 42x60” size

Kodax NX

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Lamination of film material to plate with some heat and pressure

Requires laminator and special film

MacDermid LUX

47


DuPont Digiflow® (aka Digicorr)

Retrofit to older top lift exposure units or equipped on new exposure units.

Pumps nitrogen & oxygen gas mixture onto the plate

48


Esko Inline UV

Retrofit or new machine with LED diode parts

Used for both flexo and letterpress plates

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nyloflex® NExT?

Flint Group‘s Solutionfor Flat Top Dots and Surface Screening

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NExT exposure process

acceleration of polymerization speed

reduction of oxygeninhibition effect

New high intensity UV exposure

oxygen exclusion

inertisation oxygen barrier

use of auxiliaries:inert gas (nitrogen)

use of auxiliaries:film consumption

additional processingstep (risk, costs)

inert gasconsumption and risk

high intensity UV irradiation for strong surface cure

+conventional UV tubes exposure

for through-cure

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New approach of Flint Group

• Two step exposure

• Combination of UV-A LEDs with UV-A tubes

Step 1 – High intensity UV LED surface crosslinkingStep 2 – Through-cure with conventional UV tubes

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nyloflex® NExT Operation

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Digitally imaged LAMS layer

and nyloflex® NExT technology

O2

O2O2

O2O2O2

O2O2

UV

UV UV

UV

Almost 1:1 copy

Precise reproduction nyloflex® NExT

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3 pt font (2540 dpi)(transmitted light)

3 pt font (2540 dpi)(reflected light)

NExT Plate Image Samples

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5% data @146lpi (2540 dpi)(transmitted light)

5% data @146lpi (2540 dpi)(reflected light)


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2% data @146lpi (2540 dpi)(reflected light)


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nyloflex® NExT Exposure FIII

Mid size exposure unit

Format 920 x 1200 mm (47.2 x 36.2“)

nyloflex® NExT Exposure FV

Large size exposure unit

Format 1320 x 2032 mm (52 x 80“)

nyloflex® NExT – Processing Equipment

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UV LED moduleElectrical connectors

water connection for cooling

Housing with cooling profile

LEDs with optics and quatrz glass

water connection for cooling

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NExT UV LED Bar

Radiation length = 53.9“

Modular system → 12 x 4.5“

• 49.4” radiation width even with one module out

• Ethernet port for each module for remote diagnosis / recovery at

manufacturer

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The Benefits of nyloflex® NExT• High-intensity LEDs (> 800 mW/cm2) for highest productivity

• Consistent UV emission guarantees long-term repeatability

Production consistency, especially for repeat orders

• Easy-to-use – requires no additional processing steps or consumables (such as lamination, inert gas etc.)

• Suitable for all digital flexo plates – any plate type, thickness & format High flexibility

• Compatible with all standard prepress software & HD Flexo

• Easy implementation into existing digital workflow

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nyloflex® NExT

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nyloflex® NExT

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Thanks for your attention!

Questions?

Flint Group Flexographic Products

• Extensive product range

• Customer oriented service

• Excellent technical knowledge

• Global presence

• Innovative solutions


Documents

New Innovations in Plates and Sleeves Rich Emmerling Technical Manager [email protected] 770-366-5689 Rich Emmerling Technical Manager [email protected]