"The time and money saving guide for the Flexographic printer."

FlexoGuide is a free service of All Printing Resources, Inc. (APR). It is intended to keep our customers informed of new solution-oriented products, technical tips, saving opportunities, and APR services.

Featured Products
Polaproof Digital Proofing System
Omnia Gearless Mounter Proofer
Mounting Strip for Corrugated Plate Mounting

FlexoGuide Tips
Prepress Tech Tip
Scanning Contrast - One major factor to consider in an original image before scanning is the image "keyness". Thus, it is important to set the contrast of an image correctly...

Pressroom Tech Tip
Corona Treating - Corona increases the surface energy of plastic films, foils, and paper to improve wettability and adhesion of inks, coatings, and adhesives. Treating works best when...

Training
"New Technology for Flexography Conference"
Arlington, Texas

"How To Design and Implement Graphics for Flexography"
A three-day hands-on graphics workshop June 25th - 27th in Glendale Heights, IL.

What's New
Brookfield AST-100 Advanced Sensor Technology In-line Viscosity Measurement System
Lohmann DuploFLEX 4.2 and 4.4 15-mil thick Cushion Stickyback
BASF nyloflex ART Photopolymer Plate material for combination printing.

PolaProof

PolaProof best meets today's flexo printer's demanding all-digital workflows by providing actual halftone dots, pigmented inks and the ability to proof to various printing stocks - plus high productivity, high resolution and a choice of color standards, including specialty colors and white. These capabilities add up to a complete proofing solution that offers the highest quality in the industry.

Actual printing stocks
PolaProof systems image directly to printing stocks, not a special receiver stock. Showing the effect substrates have on color at the proof stage means less on-press surprises.

Real halftone dots
Dot fidelity, dot gain, and dot stability are three critical areas where the PolaProof System demonstrates superiority as an accurate, achievable, cost effective proofing solution. Halftone dots stay sharp and crisp, showing very little gain and achieving up to 400 lpi.

With direct interfaces to Harlequin ScriptWorks, Agfa PrintDrive and Rampage Shooter, PolaProof will image the same halftone dots as your film or digital plate.

Real ink pigments
Real pigmented inks provide stable and accurate hue, color gamut and fidelity. Ink density is built into the ink sheet, which means a stable, repeatable process. Pigmented inks also require no intermediate transfer steps or wet chemical processing.

PANTONE® Colors
PolaProof color options include Hexachrome, metalics, and white.

• PANTONE® Warm Red C
• PANTONE® 293 C Blue
• PANTONE® 873 C Metallic Gold
• PANTONE® 877 C Metallic Silver
• PANTONE Hexachrome® Green
• PANTONE Hexachrome® Orange
• PANTONE Hexachrome® Yellow
• PANTONE Hexachrome® Magenta
• PANTONE Hexachrome® Cyan
• PANTONE Hexachrome® Black
• Opaque White

Award Winning
Polaroid Graphics Imaging won two GATF InterTech awards for the PolaProof system's technological innovations.

For more information or a quotation, please contact us at info@teamflexo.com.

http://www.teamflexo.com/products/featured.asp

New Bieffebi Omnia 336 Gearless Microdot Mounter Proofer

The OMNIA series (models OMNIA 335 and OMNIA 336) have been designed for the mounting of printing plates on sleeves or conventional cylinders for flexo printing with or without gears with the emphasis on offering unsurpassed cost effectiveness and versatility for converters purchasing "gearless" sleeve presses.

Another special feature of the Bieffebi mounting machine is the fact that, thanks to the patented mirrors integrated with the camera systems, it allows for the mounting of printing plates by register marks and/or microdots as well as by the actual graphics. This enables accurate and fast registration of printing plates with or without microdots. It also allows you to accurately mount plates where microdots have been lost or cut-off.

Advantages / Benefits:

• Unsurpassed versatility - This latest gearless mounting technology allows you to continue to supply the demand for mounted print cylinders for orders produced on traditional geared presses or new gearless presses all from the same mounter - saving time, money, and floor space.
  
  The gearless press and/or mounter has the ability to obtain any print repeats desired. You are not locked into 10dp, 1/4cp, 1/8cp, 5mm, etc. repeats.
  
  
• Simple, fast and user friendly - allowing for maximum machine utilization. Programming the machine for any print repeat is simple. You press the cylinder repeat button, enter in any repeat required and press enter. That is truly the extent of it.
  
  Sleeve replacement times are approximately 60 seconds with no need of mechanical adjustments. The operator will only slip the sleeve on the mandrel (supplied by Bieffebi) and input the print repeat on the control panel. By entering the code of a job previously memorized the machine will be already set for the correct print repeat for the correct mounting and proofing positions related to the chosen thickness of sticky back and plates.
  
  
• More efficient - there are no wear factors when going gearless. Correct pressure angles of the gear, cleanliness, and runout are no longer issues. This is not only for the print cylinder gears, but also the mounter bull gear, which can be even more susceptible to damage from print cylinders being placed in and out of the mounter.
  
  
• No need of "format" gears - means lower cost because no additional format gears are necessary. Because the system is gearless there is no longer any need to own gears dedicated to the mounting department for mounting use only.
  
  
• Reliability - Bieffebi is the world leader in manufacturing the most consistent and dependable mounter proofers. Their proven world-class quality levels have allowed them to set the standard for durability and accuracy.

For more information or a quotation, please contact us at info@teamflexo.com.

http://www.teamflexo.com/products/featured.asp

Universal Mounting Strip

The Universal Mounting Strip allows you to quickly switch your printing plate mount from a "top printer" to a "bottom Printer" set up without tools. This is achieved through a two piece mounting strip construction that allows the lead edge strip and trail edge strip to be converted back and forth (see diagrams below). The universal strips are sold in 72" lengths in boxes of 100.

For more information on this product, please contact us at info@teamflexo.com.

http://www.teamflexo.com/products/featured.asp

Tech Tip #1 - Prepress - Scanning Contrast
Submitted by Catherine Haynes, APR

One major factor to consider in an original image before scanning is the image "keyness". Thus, it is important to set the contrast of an image correctly before continuing with any other image editing steps.

Read more: http://www.teamflexo.com/technical/scanningContrast.asp

Tech Tip #2 - Pressroom - Corona Treating
Submitted by Enercon Industries Corp.

Corona treating increases the surface energy of plastic films, foils, and paper to improve wettability and adhesion of inks, coatings, and adhesives. Treating works best when a substrate is treated at the time of extrusion and in-line prior to converting. Proper corona treating provides increased press speeds, improved print quality, and less scrap.

Read more: http://www.teamflexo.com/technical/coronaTreating.asp

Free Technology for Flexography Conference to be held in Arlington, Texas
Some seats still available!

Prepress Technologies for
Optimizing Flexo Print Quality
Conference presented in combination by:

We would like to invite you to attend a free conference on June 13th, presented by Agfa, Artwork Systems, BASF, GRIPdigital, OLEC, Polaroid Graphics Imaging and All Printing Resources. If you are involved in flexo pre-press, platemaking or printing, you won't want to miss this opportunity to learn more about digital workflow and the options currently available using conventional processes.

This conference will be held on June 13th, in Arlington, TX. For more information, and to register online, go to: http://www.teamflexo.com/training/newTechConf.asp

Prepress for Flexography 3-Day Workshop

This three day course is designed for anyone that wants to gain knowledge and experience required to design and implement prepress for the flexographic printing process or just improve the ability of jobs to run faster, cleaner and more profitably on a Flexo press.

Topics to be covered include:

• Why flexo needs special attention from a design perspective
• The importance of color - color theory for process screens
• Adobe Photoshop features, including scanning and editing an image
• Adobe Illustrator features, including importing scanned images, vignettes, and typography

The workshop is limited to ten participants so that no sharing of equipment is required. Each participant will have use of Macintosh workstation for the three-day session.

Cost is $1000 per person. Registration fee includes an on-line Adobe course at PrintingAcademy.com and a CD of the training guide.

Register with credit card by June 7th and pay only $775!

For more information, and to register online, go to:
http://www.teamflexo.com/training/workshops.asp

BASF nyloflex ART Photopolymer Plate Material

BASF has introduced a new plate product designed to be excellent for some of the toughest combination work - whether on paper, film or folding carton stock. This plate is suitable for either water based or many solvent-based inks.

ART is available in either a conventional format or for making digital plates (digiflex ART-D II). It comes in various thicknesses ranging from .045" to .112". It is also available in various sheet sizes up to 49" X 80".

The plates excellent tonal range, softer durometer, and on-press durability makes this plate a must try for many tough to print applications requiring a forgiving yet tough flexo printing plate.

For more information on BASF ART or other BASF photopolymer products please contact us at info@teamflexo.com.

New Brookfield AST-100 Advanced Sensor In-line Viscosity Measurement Unit

Graymills introduces the new Brookfield AST-100 Advanced Sensor direct in-line viscosity measurement unit. The is the newest innovation in in-line automated viscosity measurement and control featuring a new vibratory style sensor which generates a digital signal that is correlated to measure a wide range of viscosities:

• No moving parts to wear, bind, or contact process materials.
• Simple Clean-In-Place design.
• Rugged construction.
• Reliable, easy to operate and accurate.
• Easy Installation - installs directly in-line or in by-pass line.
• Digit Display.

For more information or a quotation please call 1-800-445-4017 or e-mail us at info@teamflexo.com.

Lohmann DuploFLEX 4.2 and 4.4 15-mil thick Cushion Stickyback

Lohmann has recently introduced a 15-mil version of its proven DuploFLEX Series. DuploFLEX has become known worldwide as offering exceptional print results and dependable mounting. The product is available in two foam types - 4.2 (soft, color coded green) for process printing, half-tone, and fine line reproduction and 4.4 (medium firm, color coded yellow) for combination printing.

Both products have Lohmann's new proprietary adhesive system providing:

• Easy repositioning
• Reliable bond - even during long runs.
• Easy and clean removal - no residue left on the plate or the cylinder.
• No shellacking or spraying of plates normally necessary.
• Embossed liner for virtually bubble-free mounting from & ease of handling.

For very small circumference cylinders, Lohmann has introduced a very easy to use edge primer to best ensure no edge lift and dependable performance.

Lohmann offers unsurpassed gauge control and each individual roll is labeled with its actual thickness; an average value resulting from permanent gauge monitoring during the manufacturing process.

For more information or a quotation please call 1-800-445-4017 or e-mail us at info@teamflexo.com.

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