Robert Moran

We’ve all heard the chants of “Faster!” “Better!” “Cheaper!” They were as popular in 2006, when FLEXO turned 30, as they are today, 1nearly 20 years later.

Heeding the call, the marketplace was abuzz with activity, much of it centered around:

• Retail driven packaging
• Smart, sustainable options
• Lean manufacturing
• Design by intent
• Integration of printing and converting functions

It seems breaking new ground was the order of the day. FLEXO itself obliged. The magazine unveiled its first ever Internet Edition, dubbed “e-FLEXO” and housed at www.flexomag.com, in May. By intent, the debut coincided with FORUM INFOFLEX, and delivered considerable visibility to announcement of Excellence in Flexography Award winners.

That same year, FLEXO stepped up once again, partnering with Mark Andy in orchestrating a September flexographic print demonstration project that utilized the press manufacturer’s Technical Innovation Award winning Integrated Tag Insertion Solution. Included in the issue were a printed insert and cover story on that project.

In 2006, calls for continuous and significant improvement came from a notable printer driven initiative. Walter Dow and David McDowell launched what they called the High Definition UV flexo movement, and went on record: “We’re hoping to get the whole industry to elevate itself. A HDUV printer is one that has a serious desire to be a top quality printer.”

Retail & Detail

Getting back to the buzz of the day, FLEXO started off the year by asking CPCs to define expectations for “retail driven packaging.” Beyond the obvious—faster, better, less costly practices—John Fulcoly and Steve Pellow called for innovative production processes, quicker turnaround times, lowest possible costs, highest quality print results, complex designs, maximum color and an interactive experience for the customer.

Shortly thereafter, Walmart introduced its Smart Packaging Scorecard, stressing sustainability. Amy Zettlemeyer explained, “We’re applying the following principles when working with our buyers to identify better package designs: reduce packaging, reuse packaging, use renewable packaging, use recycled packaging and minimize financial impact.”

Trade shops began to morph into prepress providers and further down the road, premedia service specialists. Their initial foray: become stewards of brand management. The new role, as they explained it, crossed into marketing and entailed, “the blending of the abstract, non-lineal science of conceptual design and brand ideation.”

Lean manufacturing was carving out a niche in FTA members’ printing and converting plants in 2006. Evidence came as both D. Brent Renfroe and David Taylor advocated for the process. Renfroe said, “As applied to a total print manufacturing operation, lean requires change—modification in the way we approach our work, as well as how we approach the workforce. As with any other process improvement methodology, it demands commitment from the top. It also requires a long-term approach to its possibilities of total cost improvement.”

Taylor saw enterprise resource management systems as a lean tool and said impact is significant when cost estimating, order processing, job scheduling, and collecting and retrieving data.

Design Meets Intent

Design quality was matched to pressroom efficiency time and time again throughout FLEXO’s 30th Anniversary year. Specifically:

• Terri McConnell presented “Print Feasibility Exploration” and analyzed designs that deliver on intent. Her design to delivery process map included these critical steps: concept development, concept refinement, design development, finished art, prepress, plating, print review and printing
• John McDonald maintained tough consumer markets require bold graphic concepts for shrink sleeves and labels
• Kevin Chopp put a challenge to printers and demanded that knowledge of prepress and printing boost graphic success
• Suzi Stitzel introduced automated workflow concepts in her” essay on “Marrying Structure and Graphics”

Flexo’s challenges were listed out by several of those contributors. Namely: point size and line weights, vignettes and blends, soft screen tints, knock outs, floating text, photography and illustrations with detailed highlights and shadows, butting colors, ink contaminants that cause color shifts…

Winning With Converting

Giancarlo Caimmi authored “Unlocking Lamination: All You Need to Know About the Technologies, Materials and Process.” His view held that, “Lamination for flexible packaging is the art and science of combining the mechanical and physical properties of different substrates to achieve a compound that will incorporate all substrate characteristics into the final project.”

Paul Madill penned “Winning with Dies,” and explained, “The organization and level of detail used to set up and handle your dies is equally important to carton converters as the setup of race cars is for racing. When you are running your press at 1,000 fpm, the way you handle dies—like the way a car primed to glide around a race track at more than 200 mph is controlled—may make the difference between winning and losing.”

Advancements & Limitations

Daniel G. Malenke and Greg P. Osborn tutored readers on how to select the right paperboard for flexo package printing. Smoothness, receptivity, surface strength, internal strength, dimensional stability colorfastness and price were all put into play in evaluating printability of any substrate—bleached, coated, uncoated, boxboard, etc.

Mike Huey explained predictable print results depend on anilox maintenance, verification and identification.

Robert Smithson asked should you bring prepress in house and offered an analysis on fingerprinting a press, the best proofing method, proof to press comparisons, fades to zero and designing artwork specific to flexo. The conclusion: Each printer should weigh the pros and cons—in house prepress can deliver plates more quickly, yet it requires investment in equipment and trained personnel.

David Parr argued, “Flexography is rapidly moving to in-the-round (ITR) plate sleeve printing, and although computer digital imaging (CDI) is widely accepted as the current method of digital plate making, direct laser engraving offers the opportunity to control the digital flexo process from client to press.”