Flexo Quality Consortium (FQC) Committee
The Flexo Quality Consortium (FQC) Committee is comprised of industry members seeking to provide fellow flexographers with a better understanding of the factors controlling the quality of a flexographic image.
This is accomplished through FQC projects, for which members of the FQC Committee conceive goals, plan out, supply consumables, run print trials, evaluate results, draft reports and present findings.
Who can volunteer to be on a Flexo Quality Consortium (FQC) project? You can!
Each project is a little different and the team members may differ, based on those varying needs. It is the responsibility of the leader to determine what skill sets are needed for success.
What Are FQC Projects?
FQC is chartered to provide the industry with a better understanding of the factors controlling the quality of the flexographic printing process. It investigates select process variables in order to further develop reproducible process concepts that will result in measurable advancements in flexo technology.
Members actively participate in global graphic standards committees and associations to research and represent the flexographic printing process and actively support the content validation of FIRST (Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications & Tolerances ).
The FQC develops and evaluates proposed projects individually to determine their technical value to the industry and the FQC’s goals. It encourages open participation by qualified technical representatives from FTA member companies on a non-discriminatory basis.
The FQC supports projects that are manageable, statistically sound and use commercially available materials and resources to provide qualitative and quantitative documentation through FTA and other industry vehicles for publication and dissemination.
Types of FQC Project Participants
Here’s an example list of the membership resources that work a project from beginning to end:
- Team leader: Can be any FTA member who has the skills to lead a diverse team
- Printers: May be needed to run trials, collect samples and data, supply experiences that help navigate the variables from a real-world perspective
- Consumable suppliers: If a project variable is a consumable (ex: plates, software, inks, etc.), then we need experts in this area to make sure we are including all facets of the products in our design of experiment (DOE)
- Premedia service providers: Prepress and plate making are critical components if the project is to go on press and the experience that service providers bring to the table with respect to brand owners is an essential component
- Equipment/press component manufacturers: We thrive on data and we get that data from measurement instruments (ex: spectros, opacimeters, etc.), press variables (ex: anilox rollers) and actual run data supplied from the pressroom
- Educators/students: We welcome educators and students to all teams to help conduct the research, gather information and provide an unbiased outlook to the project
- Statistician: It is all about the data. From the DOE all the way to final data analysis, we need statisticians to do the data crunching that tells us if our hypotheses are validated or rejected, and make sure our findings will stand up to the scrutiny of both the FIRST Committee and global regulating bodies
We want team members to be fulfilled and confident that what they are bringing to the team is important and their participation matters. For that reason, we’d like team members to have a significant interest in the project.
Is every project right for everyone? Probably not, but we will make sure volunteers are paired with the project that suits their expertise and resources.
What’s It Like to Participate in an FQC Project?
So, what is it like to work on an FQC project? Here is some feedback from individuals in specific roles and discussing specific parts of past projects:
Project leader: “Being an FQC project leader is a commitment to seeing the project through to fruition. It requires project management skills, interpersonal skills and vision to motivate team members, corral them in at times, and run with ideas that align with the projects goals.”
Team member: “Project team members must bring their experience and expertise to the table during conference calls, press trials, data analysis and interpretation of the results. It is a team that conducts the research, and a team that delivers the industry impact of the results to the membership and standards organizations.”
Project concept: “This is the most important step of the process. Team members must agree on the goals of the project and how they intend to get there. These are inputs, outputs, methodology and scope. The projects must be manageable and utilize available technology and resources.”
Mission: “A project starts with a charter, or mission, that is approved by the FQC Executive Committee. The mission will guide the team as it designs the research, analyzes results and determines if the charter has been accomplished.”
Output data: “It is critical the data that is generated and collected during lab work, press trials or literature search is accurate. Teams make an effort to educate printers on the procedures for a trial, the type of data that needs to be collected and often provide spreadsheets to facilitate data gathering. Participants are fully engaged in the process and should contribute their knowledge as the process progresses.”
Statistical design: “The DOE is a roadmap that defines the conditions that may affect the process variation. It is intended to control variables and define the scope of the experiment as it pertains to the project mission and its outcomes.”
Data analysis: “Once the data has been gathered, it must be analyzed. This is not done in a vacuum. The team members must look at and interpret the data, and come to an agreement on the conclusions. Only then can it report and document the results.”
The FQC, through its Standards Working Group (SWG), enables Committee members to have a voice in standards creation and deliberations on the world stage by working with global standards committees and attending meetings to vote on adoptions and revisions.
Committee members also evaluate and select a recipient of the annual Gary Hilliard FQC Scholarship, in conjunction with the Scholarship Committee.
The FIRST committee Chair
Catherine Haynes
All Printing Resources
The FIRST committee Members
Jean Jackson – FTA Hall of Fame
Steve Smiley – FTA Hall of Fame
Bobby Congdon – Clemson U
Carlo Carnelli – ColorConsulting SrL
Jinkai Qian – Techkon USA
Brad Turner – GMG Americas
Stefano D’Andrea – Flexo Expert
Kathryn Taylor – Clemson U
Steve Cooney – StarPak Ltd
Allen Sanders – All Printing Resources Inc
James Dye – Emerald Packaging Inc
Erica Kirinovic – Amcor
Bill Pope – RIT Dept of Packaging & Graphic Media Science
Dina Vees – California Polytechnic State University
