Who turned up trumps?

‘To win Gold means that the judges declared the entry “world-class” – in their view these winners could stand up with the best in the global flexo printing industry,’ Bill reiterates. ‘Crisp dots, pristine flesh tones, images that just pop off the substrate … these are just some of the highlights noted by the judges.’

Playing a vital role in the success of this programme are category sponsors – these companies make the whole thing possible, allowing FTASA to pursue its objective of advancing the flexographic printing process. In 2011, sponsors included Antalis, Beswick Machinery/Fischer & Krecke, Eagle Ink Systems, Hi-Tech Inks, Ipex Machinery/Gidue, Kemtek Print Solutions, Kiley Baker, PACKAGiNG & Print Media, Sappi, SArepco/Mark Andy, Sun Chemical, Syreline Process and UPM Raflatac.

Erich Kühl, FTASA’s executive secretary, is particularly grateful for their support. ‘Without these sponsors, we wouldn’t be able to run an event of this magnitude,’ he remarks.

To view the photographic record of the day’s events visit our e-mag at http://www.packagingmag.co.za/

Technical seminar adds value

Adding value to the celebration of the 2011 Print Excellence Awards, the FTASA staged a morning-long seminar prior to the awards luncheon.

First speaker was Federico d’Annunzio, MD of Nuova Gidue in Italy, who gave two presentations. In the first, he introduced delegates to Gidue’s trademarked Digital Flexo concept as launched at last year’s Labelexpo in Brussels.

Federico emphasised that on Gidue’s new-generation Digital Flexo press, waste and time for set-up are no longer variables in the hands of the press operator – set-up and production are digitally controlled and cannot exceed predetermined values. With the Digital Flexo concept, converters can predict the profitability of the press, as they can predict exactly how many metres (a maximum of 10m) will be wasted during set-up, and the exact quality obtained during production. Every value is digitally controlled and digitally corrected.

In his second presentation, Federico reviewed the use of UV flexo printing in-line with solventless lamination specifically to meet demands for safe food packaging. Again, this followed his presentation at Labelexpo when he unveiled his company’s new Food Packaging Programme for UV flexo developed to support label converters entering the flexible packaging field, focusing on Gidue’s latest development, a Master SL 630 solventless laminator.

The combination of UV flexo and inline solventless lamination marks a revolution for the flexible packaging market, avoiding any contact of UV inks with the reel by protecting the UV printed surface with a laminated film before rewinding. According to Federico, the risk of UV ink migration is virtually eliminated.

More information on Gidue’s products is available from Bruce Allen of Ipex Machinery.

The next speaker, Dominique Ventura, product sales manager for Bobst, discussed his company’s iQ 300 quality control system that’s billed as providing ‘100% firewall protection’ for corrugated post print.

In the world of flexo printing, the time taken in setting and adjusting a production run is a key factor when it comes to evaluating productivity. On top of this, returned orders adversely affect a company’s reputation and increase its costs.

With these issues in mind, Bobst introduced the iQ 300, an innovative, high-performance quality control system that makes it possible to guarantee that 100% of the production from a flexo press meets the quality standards set by the customer, while simultaneously cutting set-up times and reducing waste.

Further information on Bobst products is available from Bruce Beswick of Beswick Machinery.

The third contribution came from Sun Chemical’s technical director, David Ogg, who discussed the challenges of dealing with the migration of inks and varnishes when it comes to food packaging substrates.

Sun Chemical is a market leader in the development and promotion of low-migration inks and coatings for the printing of compliant packaging for foodstuffs, as well as sensitive applications such as tobacco and pharmaceutical packaging. While market awareness of issues surrounding migration from packaging has been increasing on a global basis, Sun Chemical has been promoting the use of low-migration offset technology for use on packaging for more than 25 years.

According to David, printing compliant food packaging involves complex legislative decisions but brand owners, print specifiers and converters have some simple choices to make. A risk assessment should always be completed at the initial stage of pack design. If a migration risk is anticipated, then the pack needs to be tested to prove its migration performance or low-migration inks and coatings should be used to avoid any worries.

David is a mine of information on the topic of ink migration. Contact him with your queries.

Rounding out proceedings was Paul Rich, technical director of CAE (Ceramic Anilox Rollers), who described the new generation of anilox transfer technology – high definition laser engraving.

He focused on key features of this system and the way in which anilox technology has to keep pace with plate technologies (eg flat top dots). ‘It’s no longer necessary to choose between screen count and volume,’ he declared. ‘Now you can have both!’

With its advanced technology, competitive pricing and local technical support, CAE, as a locally-based producer, tries to stay ahead of the game. ‘We make sure we react quickly to market trends and provide what our customers want, whether they’re small or large enterprises. Quality is paramount and we always endeavour to lead,’ Paul emphasised. Contact him for further information.

Ipex Machinery (bruce@ipex.co.za)
Beswick Machinery (bruce@beswick.co.za)
Sun Chemical (David.Ogg@sunchemical.com)
Ceramix Anilox Engravers (paul.rich@caejhb.co.za)