From Prepress to Press: All Printing Resources Showcases Digital Production Solutions at Labelexpo Americas 2016
Glendale Heights, IL: This September at Labelexpo Americas, All Printing Resources (APR) will take converters on a journey from ‘Prepress to Press’ at booth #937. The company will be showcasing a range of production solutions that offer converters increased efficiencies, superb precision in job-to-job repeatability, and state-of-the-art digital/flexo hybrid printing.
On display will be MacDermid Graphic Solutions’ continued evolution of the LAVA™ Thermal Plate Processing System. The latest design of the Lava incorporates remote diagnostics, an improved heating system, web path controls, and additional enhancements that complement the company’s line of digital plates.
APR will also be featuring Colordyne Technologies’ 3600 Series Retrofit System. The system allows converters to economically transform their existing flexo press into a state-of-the-art digital/flexo hybrid press. The Retrofit System’s inkjet technology enables converters to turn their existing flexo label presses into a full-color digital inkjet solution that allows them to use their existing tooling inventories.
Also on display will be an Esko CDI Spark 2530 digital flexo imaging system. Esko’s CDI Imagers allow flexo printers to achieve gravure and offset quality including smoother, sharper images with an expanded tonal range, brighter and more vibrant solids, and a wider color gamut.
Label converters that visit the booth will also receive a copy of the APR Narrow Web Flexo Production and Digital Printing White Paper. Labelexpo marks the official release date of the White Paper and features the results of an extensive APR-commissioned research study that surveyed label printers and converters throughout the U.S. about the drivers of digital press acquisitions in addition to key flexo production benchmarking metrics. The research results will not be made public and will only be available to converters that visit APR’s booth.
Dave Nieman, APR President and CEO, states, “We had a number of objectives in carrying out the research and publishing the results in the White Paper. First, APR wanted to identify what the most urgent issues are for narrow web companies. Are converters’ customers demanding lead times and run lengths that are a challenge to provide? What are converters’ most significant production bottlenecks? We wanted to take a close look at the issues that impact the productivity of narrow web flexo and how companies are tracking and measuring things like downtime reduction, prepress efficiencies and make-ready times.
Secondly, we wanted to understand what exactly pushes label converters to purchase their first, or their next, digital label press. Is it because companies need to have the same offering as their competitors? Is it primarily an issue of being able to offer an optimum short-run solution? There are more digital printing technology options in the marketplace than ever before and it’s critical that suppliers of this technology clearly understand the market influences and production requirements that are driving the decisions of our customers and prospects. Labelexpo Americas has always been a key event for APR. However this year’s booth will be our largest and most extensive ever and we look forward to taking converters through the Prepress to Press concept and discussing ways we can help them deliver value added products and services to their customers.”