The golden touch

This is according to head of application technology Jörg Rohde, who explains that the team chose complex images typically found on food, coffee, tobacco, cosmetics and pet food packaging to maximise the project’s practical relevance. ‘The designs all featured subtle gradients in the highlights and fine details in the high tonal ranges. The one of a woman’s face completely covered in gold make-up proved quite challenging because of the contrast levels.’

Three applications were produced: flexible packaging (printed on BOPP film), corrugated preprint on 135g/cm2 paper fully coated on one side and a paper carrier bag made from 100g/cm2 white-coated kraft paper.

Jörg reports that for all three applications they selected anilox rollers equipped with Zecher’s SteppedHex engraving technology because the staggered cell geometry optimises print quality and Flexcel NX plates (made with Kodak Maxtone SX Screening [152lpi]) based on their controlled ink transfer and strong market presence.

‘Our project partners were delighted by the colour consistency and close tolerances across the three substrates, as well as the outstanding image quality in the gradients and fine details. The striking reproduction of the golden face, using just the capabilities of CMYK flexo printing (and no additional spot colours), was similarly impressive.