2018 Excellence in Flexography Awards Wide Web Winners

The wide web category of the 2018 Excellence in Flexography Awards was an outlier, the only one to continue the upward trend in awards seen over the past five years. Looking back to 2014, the nine gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze awards bestowed this year by judges each either tied the previous record for that type of award or set a new benchmark.

“In the four years I have been judging, this year was probably the best for execution,” says awards committee member Sean Teufler of Harper Corporation of America. “Printers understand it is not just the look, but the technical details that make their samples stand out.”

Teufler and All Printing Resources Inc’s Tim Reece oversaw the group of wide web judges that included Bob Fiala of ProAmpac, Jason Wilhoite of WestRock, Rob Reinhart of Automated Packaging Systems, Kevin Schilling of Kodak, FTA Hall of Fame Member Mark Mazur and David Bell of Correct-Touch Graphic Arts. Over the two days of competition, that group evaluated a large number of “very difficult to execute” entries, Teufler says. The submissions included quite a few 10-color prints with very tight registration, some laminated and some with foil enhancements. Especially notable was a large number of “spot-on” registers of tactile, matte and gloss coatings. And embellishments were in abundance; many samples had additional flexo enhancements like sand varnish.

Wide Web Judges

Wide Web Awards, 2014-2018

The high level of quality and attention to detail were what led judges to recognize a total of 31 prints with awards; their praise of those jobs spelled out in comments such as, “Very nice color match,” “Registration is awesome!” and “print-to-proof match was wonderful.”

“Awards were given to the samples that scored the highest and rose to the top,” Teufler states. “We could not give awards to samples out of register, missing print or other obvious flaws.”

Taking Best of Show honors in the category was the Post Fruity Pebbles/Cocoa Pebbles Wrappers printed by Transcontinental Robbie. “Highlight dots are clean, crisp and solid,” judges said of the print. “The image pops off the web!”