Delivering Cost Savings and State-of-the-Art Plate and Screening Software Solutions to Flexible Packaging Industry Pioneer
Overview
Elmhurst, Illinois-based Bema is a full-service flexible packaging printing company specializing in the highest quality, small to medium run sizes. With 10 color state-of-the-art press capabilities, the company serves the food, pet care, and industrial sectors specializing in precision-engineered, stand-up pouch film and foil applications.
Over the company’s 62-year history, Bema has long been dedicated to quality best practices by enabling their people with the most advanced and proven technology found in the marketplace. With longstanding rigid internal quality standards, the company uses only the highest-grade materials and has been recognized by AIB International for outstanding food packaging safety, security and cleanliness. One of Bema’s core competencies is the design and manufacturing of stand-up zippered, liquid, shaped, and spouted pouches.
Challenge
Bema wanted to take their plate and imaging technologies to the highest level and to take advantage of recent industry advancements. Bema’s Production Manager, Jason Galloway, comments, “We had been researching expanded gamut for quite some time due to the cost savings and print quality it can deliver. Based on our rapid growth, we needed to upgrade and achieve faster plate imaging speeds. We were thorough in our research, looking at all the new plate technology out there like flat-top dot and all the different screening technologies available. We ran extensive print trials, giving different providers some of our most challenging applications to reproduce and different designs that we run frequently. We did multiple jobs with each plate supplier and compared and contrasted the results.”
“APR’s support has been phenomenal. When we have some technical questions or an issue we need help with, they respond immediately.”
Jason Galloway
Prepress and Press Manager,
Bema
As highest-quality, small run-size specialists, Bema’s underlying production objectives are to stay efficient with fewer defects and re-runs. A company that prides itself in being one of the most innovative and nimble in the flexible packaging industry, Bema is constantly fine-tuning the ways the company fully integrates all of the steps necessary to provide on-time delivery of the highest-quality printed products.
Solution
After analyzing available prepress and plate technologies, Bema chose Esko’s Equinox Extended Gamut Printing prepress software and MacDermid LAVA® plate processing, offered and supported by All Printing Resources (APR). Esko’s Equinox is an extended gamut printing solution designed specifically for packaging and label printers. Bema also made the switch to MacDermid’s flat-top dot line of flexo plates, designed specifically for advanced flexographic performance across a range of printed packaging formats. Equinox enables converters to reproduce brand color without using spot inks; instead, printers use a fixed set of five to seven inks enabling fast job change-over while optimizing visual brand identity.
Outcome
Galloway comments, “Using MacDermid’s plates and the Esko Equinox screening software, we’ve seen ink savings of nearly 20%. We’re able to transfer the same densities that we used to use with a different supplier’s plates and different screening software. And APR’s support has been phenomenal. When we have some technical questions or an issue we need help with, they respond immediately. We make it a point to work only with the best suppliers and manufacturers in the industry and APR certainly fits that bill.”