FLEXO: The flexo industry underwent quite a revolution during your time at the helm of the FIRST Committee. What are the biggest changes you’ve seen to FIRST in the past two decades?
Eric Ferguson, DataLase: The biggest changes I’ve seen over two decades have been “macro” trends, supported in some fashion by FIRST.
First off (pun intended), I’d say the decade from 1997 to 2007 was characterized by a real step-change in flexo print quality and consistency, thanks to investments in new printing presses, new color management tools, digital proofing systems and a switch to digital plate making. The (mostly) swift adoption of these was significantly impacted by the emergence of FIRST as a broadly accepted specifications document. Companies of all sizes were leveraging FIRST to help integrate these new systems and obtain a predictable result, winning lots of new business along the way.
During the 10-year period from 2007 to 2017, we have seen rapid industry consolidation, both for printer/converters and brands. In addition, digital printing technologies have emerged, attempting to disrupt conventional assumptions of artwork design and preparation, and manufacturing lead times. Both of these led to a tectonic shift in responsibilities and roles, as the traditional supply chain flattened. Again, FIRST has been integral in aiding communication between participants. Also, we suddenly found these new technologies needed to cohabitate to succeed, and having a consistent language and specification set was an important part of blending these varied technologies, successfully.
FLEXO: Give us the backstory of how FIRST was started and how it came to be.
Jeff Randazzo, Controlled Displacement Technologies: When introduced to flexography, it was described to me as a crude rubber stamp process only suited to print bread, ice and grocery bags. Shortly after my involvement in prepress, I saw the process much differently. What I saw was the potential to refine that process, allowing it to compete with a quality that rivals offset and gravure printing, at a lower cost. The rest was straightforward. Just ask consumer product companies—FIRST moved the process to a new level.
They said it couldn’t be done, that it would hurt the competitive environment and reduce industry output to the lowest common denominator. Besides, flexo had too many variables, specifications, etc., that would limit its abilities.
As founder and chairman of FIRST, my vision was to create a more united flexo community, one where all participants were focused on improving the product, process and communications, so that our customers—CPCs—could rely on flexography to print their packaging consistently, from printer to printer, product to product, coast to coast, and continent to continent. FTA saw the need and rose to the challenge.
FLEXO: How have you utilized FIRST in your career?
Lon Robinson, Tension Corp.: When the earliest versions of FIRST came out, we were struggling to understand how to print difficult images and process color work consistently without needing to re-invent the wheel every time we tried to put a job on press. The premier edition did not have many pages—less than 100—but it was packed full of useful information. It got us on the right track for fingerprinting and helped us take the initial steps into process control and repeatability. Subsequent editions provided more and more information and helped us continue to improve. FIRST 5.1 and soon FIRST 6.0 are tremendous documents that outline process improvements throughout the entire printing procedure.
The envelope industry as a whole has made huge strides in print quality, especially in process color work. I see this every year as a part of the Excellence in Flexography Awards Committee. I firmly believe FIRST has played a large role in helping pave the way for these improvements.
Personally, I don’t have a shrine to FIRST on my desk like [All Printing Resources’ VP of Business Development] Richard Black does, but a copy of FIRST is always in my office, and used on a regular basis.