Printing the Job
FLEXO: How did the actual pressrun go?
Oetjen: The pressrun went smooth with no major hiccups. A few things positively impacted the final pressrun: Good prepress on the file assures a smooth start to the pressrun. A properly trained operator assured the press was set up correctly. And lastly, by optimizing and fingerprinting the press, we knew what to expect when it was time to run the final job, virtually eliminating any of the hurdles we could have faced.
FLEXO: Did you encounter any on-press obstacles and, if so, how did you overcome them?
Oetjen: Our Mark Andy 2200 press is 22 years old and we anticipated the possibility of getting gear marks on the screens, which would then cause distortion on the images of the graduating students. To prevent this, we placed those 0.05-in. bearer bars on each side of the plate and it worked!
To get the proper tactile feel, we did not use a traditional doctor blade. We took a plastic hose (used to drain ink back into the container) and put that in the doctor blade holder. This “buttered” the roll with ink rather than shearing it off, creating a thicker ink film, which allowed the tactile to really pop off the front of the card and provided the touch sensation we were looking to achieve. Because there was so much tactical varnish, we had to max out our UV lamp intensity and run at a max speed of 95 fpm.
Tight registration on the images with fine detail of logos made registration tricky. High-resolution plates required good impression settings to allow for great-looking highlight dots and crisp images.
“It all comes down to the basics. The majority of the time when something is going wrong on press it is because one of the basics was not done correctly. It’s really that easy.”
FLEXO: Flexo Tech is unique among printers in the 2018 FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards Competition in that its operators are students. Does that make the pressrun more of a learning and teaching experience?
Oetjen: Yes, the pressrun is a great learning and teaching experience. It is my philosophy not to touch the press when the students are running it because that would prevent them from learning. I am simply there to guide and answer questions. With more complex runs like this card, the students are learning a lot. Aaron Pitt (of Computype) was so excited to print this card and take on some of the challenges it presented. When you have students like Aaron with such a great attitude and work ethic, they take every experience as a learning opportunity. Throughout the class, the students run a wide variety of projects from 2-color work to delam relam jobs. This provides them the knowhow and confidence to print this type of award-winning work without having to struggle.
Winning an Excellence in Flexography Award
FLEXO: Flexo Tech received a gold award in the 2018 FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards Competition for the holiday card. How did it feel as an instructor for your students to get that recognition? How did the student feel?
Oetjen: For me, it felt awesome and adds validity to what I teach. Aaron was thrilled he won an award. Moments like this foster a sense of pride in the students and what they can accomplish with their skills. It also assures them that they can have a great career in flexo! This reinforces that the skills the students are learning are real and if they follow the training, they can produce an award-winning print.
FLEXO: Because the Excellence in Flexography Awards are evaluated based on measurable parameters, judges are looking for different things than a brand owner or consumer. Can a print be both award-worthy and satisfying to a consumer, or are those opposing ideals?
Oetjen: It has to be both—no question! The more designers learn about flexo capabilities, combined with technical advancements in the pressroom that improve our print capabilities, it is becoming easier to achieve both. I think the most critical component is working with the customers to identify their design requirements. There are many things that can be done to make the flexo file more printer-friendly in the design and prepress stages. These tweaks will have minimal effect on the overall look of the file (keeping the brand owner happy) but will make them substantially easier to print. This results in happy brand owners and printers, and ultimately, more repeatable print results.
FLEXO: Flexo Tech also won a gold award in last year’s Excellence in Flexography Awards Competition for a label, a job that was markedly different than this year’s holiday card. What remained the same year over year that enabled Flexo Tech to receive the gold award again?
Oetjen: It all comes down to the basics. The majority of the time when something is going wrong on press it is because one of the basics was not done correctly. It’s really that easy. The fundamentals of flexo printing are the foundation of the Flexo Tech education. The core of our curriculum is the hands-on experience and understanding the students get, so they walk away with a true understanding of what makes flexo work.
Flexo Tech would not exist wihout the generous support of its sponsors, especially the following companies: Avery Dennison, AWT Labels & Packaging, Computype, Flint Group, Mark Andy Inc, Harper Corporation of America, Daetwyler, Interflex Laser Engravers, Techkon, Green Bay Packaging, FLEXcon, RotoMetrics, UPM Raflatac and X-Rite.