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. Previous issues of FlexoGuide are available here.   Tech Tip 1 - Solvent Washout Photopolymer Plates - Advancements & Solution Control Tech Tip 2 - Setting Standards for Managing Anilox Inventory by Bill Poulson, Harper Graphic Solutions' Northeast Technical Graphics Advisor Tech Tip 3 - Understanding Ink Pumps by Craig Shields, President, Graymills Ink Pumps Considerations for Printing with Digital Flexo Plates Eliminate substrate wrinkles and protect rollers with 3M's new 5401 Traction Tape. Also, get the new Flexographic Mounting Product Selection Guide Poster now available with the addition of the 1300 and 1500 series stickyback products. Rogers U1A unsupported cushion foam combines the convenience of a pre-applied high performance adhesive with the flexibility to bond directly to your choice of either PVC or PET carrier film. Improved print quality, ink related savings, and better print reproducibility on re-runs all result from using Fasnacht Viscosity Control systems. Increased profits flow right to the bottom line when your ink is properly controlled for viscosity, temperature and pH. Epson's new 880 series employs a newer high-density form of magenta pigments for an extremely wide color gamut - especially blues and purples. Greatly reduce or eliminate banding or gear marking using Nu Tech Coatings' Sys Tec Plate Mounting Workstation for Narrow Web and Labels  Tech Tip 1 Solvent Washout Photopolymer Plates - Advancements & Solution Control Many of today's award winning photopolymer platemakers and printers continue to embrace solvent washout technology for both conventional and digital photopolymer plates. Primary reasons include superior print results and print consistency resulting from gauge uniformity, equalized plate surface energy, more repeatable dot generation, and the ability to select from more photopolymer plate materials. Tech Tip 2 Setting Standards for Managing Anilox Inventory Managing your anilox rolls is a preventive way of getting control of your graphic quality as well as press efficiency. Downtime is the enemy, and every attempt made to minimize downtime is a worthwhile effort. Whether you are a wide web or a narrow web facility, gravure or flexo coating operation, you need to manage your anilox inventory. This is a subject that is often not taken seriously enough day to day in some flexo shops. You will get out of your anilox rolls what you put into them. If they are neglected you will not get the life expectancy out of these rolls, and there will be unexpected press downtime and color management issues.
Tech Tip 3 Understanding Ink Pumps This PowerPoint presentation discusses Graymill's range of products, pump selection criteria and an emphasis on better understanding the advantages and disadvantages of double diaphragm pumps.  Considerations for Printing with Digital Flexo Plates 
On October 17th, All Printing Resources, in conjunction with Harper Corporation, conducted a free seminar discussing how to optimize digital flexo plate technology for quality, consistency and repeatability. This seminar delivered the latest information needed to get the most from digital flexo plate technology regardless if making plates in-house or ordering them from an outside vendor. The seminar also offered knowledge for those not currently using digital plates or digital proofing but are interested to find out if this technology can benefit them at this time. 
Topics covered included: how to best see the benefits on press of printing with digital plates by optimizing your press and ink delivery system, how color management is affected in a digital workflow, and how new technologies can improve productivity for better matching of proofs to the press. Other topics discussed were an update on where digital platemaking and proofing is today, how to best handle and store digital plates, and a discussion of the best mounting tape compressibility choices for digital plates as well as what's new in "digital" mounting technology. APR plans to offer similar seminars again in the future, in different areas of the country. If you are interested in learning more about this seminar, please contact us: Phone: 1-800-445-4017, Fax: 1-800-536-4946, E-Mail: training@teamflexo.com  3M™ Traction Tape 5401 - A unique blend of traction and a non-stick surface for web processing at a very competitive cost. 
The new 3M™ Traction Tape 5401 product was specifically developed to provide a unique blend of traction that grips the web as it passes over rollers with a non-stick surface for roller wrapping which keeps inks, coatings, or adhesives from building up on the rollers or drums in many web processing applications. 3M™ Traction Tape 5401 offers the flexibility of a glass cloth reinforced tape with a backing made for traction and non-stick for many adhesives and substrates that are utilized in web processing. It is ideal for many web processing applications where rollers need to have a traction or non-stick surface. 3M™ Traction Tape 5401 offers:
New 3M Selection Poster for Stickyback Products To get copies of the new 3M Stickyback Selection Guide Poster, please e-mail us at info@teamflexo.com or call us at 1-800-445-4017. Click Here to download a PDF with more information on 3M Traction Tape 5401. Rogers Corporation is pleased to announce the release of R/bak U1A, unsupported cushion foam with a single sided acrylic adhesive for corrugated printing applications. U1A combines the convenience of a pre-applied high performance adhesive with the flexibility to bond directly to your choice of either PVC or PET carrier film. The R/bak U1A series is available in four thicknesses (040", 060", 080" and 100") to customize your corrugated plate mount solution. Benefits are reported to include:
Click Here to download a PDF with more information on R/bak U1A. Graymills Viscosity by Fasnacht and New Graymills Catalog now available Graymills is now the exclusive North American distributor for Fasnacht+Co AG viscosity control systems, one of the world's leading manufacturers of viscosity controls for flexographic and gravure printing. "Graymills and Fasnacht are natural partners that make this relationship a plus for both companies and their customers. By leveraging our brand names and reputations for quality, we are able to offer our customers the best in equipment and service," Craig Shields, President, Graymills. Previously sold in the U.S. market for many years under the brand name "Graphicart America", Fasnacht's precise, easy-to-operate systems made them the choice of flexo and gravure printers worldwide. In addition to viscosity control, the systems can adjust both temperature and pH, are self-cleaning, and require little calibration or maintenance. For more information, download the current Fasnacht brochure. Graymills has also just released their new updated product catalog "Circulating, Conditioning, and Control Systems for Flexo & Gravure" For a copy of the brochure to be mailed to you, please e-mail us at info@teamflexo.com. Click Here to download a PDF with more information on Graymills Viscosity by Fasnacht. Epson launches a new series of inkjet printers named the 880 series This new series of printers are still 8 colors like the previous 800 series, however they employ a newer high-density form of magenta pigments for an extremely wide color gamut - especially blues and purples. This new magenta is used in both the magenta cartridge and the light magenta cartridge.  With this new extended gamut, the Epson printers coupled with the EFI Colorproof XF proofing software will be able to simulate an even greater percentage of the current Pantone Matching library. This new gamut will also be helpful in matching the new Pantone Goe library. In addition to the current 17", 24" and 44" (4880, 7880, 9880) models, Epson also introduced a new 64" printer, the 11880. Click Here to download a PDF with more information on the new Epson Stylus® Pro 4880.  Greatly reduce or eliminate banding or gear marking using Nu Tech Coatings - Performance Enhancing Cylinder (PEC) Special Surface Coating 
This unique coating is applied directly on to your existing or newly manufactured cylinder. The key advantage is to provide a platform for a plate that will allow for consistent impression, eliminating a huge variable of the flexo process. Key Advantages
Recent Customer Comments: "We recently tested a coated print cylinder from Nu Tech Coatings to help us with a problem job. It prints a full vignette in PMS 288 blue. It is the first time in my 17+ years in flexo printing that I have seen the same plate go from printing excessive gear streaks to zero gear streaks just by changing from a conventional print cylinder to this new coated print cylinder." — General Manager "I don't know if anyone has heard about these special print cylinders called PEC (Performance Enhancing Cylinders) that eliminate gear marking. I was introduced to them about three or four months ago. We always had issues with [a vignette] label with gear marking, so I bought these PECs for our 4CP. The gear marks went away immediately. The cylinders are 2 - 3 times the cost of a normal hard case cylinder but, the results are well worth it in this case. We tried to over impress the plate during the run and we couldn't." — Plant Manager Specifications - PEC's are designed and manufactured to exacting specifications, which meet your requirements for tight tolerances. This will assure precise registration and print quality that exceeds your customer's expectations. The following specifications apply to cylinders produced in sets or multiples of two starting with a minimum order of four. These tolerances are within a cylinder, as well as from cylinder to cylinder.
For more information on this product, please call us at 1-800-445-4017, or e-mail us at info@teamflexo.com. Sys Tec Plate Mounting Workstation for Narrow Web and Labels offers unsurpassed precision, user friendliness, and increased plate-mounting efficiencies. ST Converting is a European leader in innovative mounting solutions for the flexo industry. Utilizing software and engineering expertise, they have brought to the market, efficient high quality mounters that can reduce costs and improve quality. Their full line plate mounters are easy to use, highly productive and remarkably precise, utilizing their color auto focus cameras with zoom up to 270X. Features on their narrow web equipment include:
Photosplit is the software for managing the cameras. It is included in all versions and models. PhotoSplit is an application that permits the control of the plate mounter, allowing a perfect alignment of the plate marking crosshairs. 
The cameras installed on the plate mounter machine acquires the images thanks to PhotoSplit. The cameras permit you also to have crosshairs viewed in separated and independent windows. PhotoSplit uses innovative methods to allow the plate permits to overlap each other the plate images acquired by the cameras with a virtual image made by the software. This visualization method, together with the advanced functions of the software, allow you to obtain the highest precision during the alignment. 
Virtual Image Sys Tec's Virtual Image system, the first on market, provides an easy, reliable and accurate Virtual ProofPrint, allowing you to align plates without crosses or microdots. This exclusive and patented system, included in our plate mounters, is also available as a conversion kit for plate mounters of other manufactures. Operation
Click Here to download a PDF with more information on the SysTec Narrow Web Mounter. Click Here to download a PDF with more information on SysTec's Photo Split and Virtual Image software. For more information, literature, pricing, or any other assistance, please call us at 1-800-445-4017 or e-mail us at info@teamflexo.com. Privacy Policy We want to let you know that to protect your privacy, we will never release your e-mail address to a third party. In all cases, every message we send will be clearly identified as coming to you from All Printing Resources, Inc.. And with every message, you will be given an opportunity to opt out from receiving future messages. Even if you have previously submitted e-mail preferences, you may use the link below to check or add to your profile. This will allow us in the future to better select specials, tech tips, featured products, and training updates products and services targeted to your more specific business needs. Thank you for being a FlexoGuide subscriber and for aiding us in the process of making this a continually improving time and money saving guide for the Flexographic printing industry. © 2007, All Printing Resources, Inc.  |
