Sessions
FLEXO: FORUM 2021 begins with a group of technical specialists from plate companies discussing modern-day capabilities and benefits. Titled “The Great Plate Debate 2021,” it’s a callback to a similar setup from 11 years ago. What specific topics are fair game, and how does the format enhance the content delivery?
Wright: Name another FORUM session from 11 years ago that we are still talking about. The Great Plate Debate sparked a lot of industry buzz. Plenty of advances have been made since then, but the debate has not cooled. I think the roundtable discussion is a great format for each brand to represent itself.
Farrell: And for printers, they get to hear for themselves and learn about key technologies, how to overcome technical challenges and what’s next for plate development advancements.
FLEXO: The relentless pace of innovation requires constant attention to keep on top of the latest and most-advanced consumables options. Is that what “Showcasing Emerging Products” plans to do? What trends are evident across multiple classes of these latest technologies?
Farrell: You’ll hear about key consumables that are emerging in the marketplace and are geared toward making an impact on productivity, quality and consistency in your manufacturing process.
Wright: What’s the new stuff happening in the industry? What are printers talking about? What’s making a difference in production? These are the questions this session’s speakers are looking to answer.
FLEXO: A little bit of efficiency can go a long way when it comes to controlling color at each stage of a pressrun. How will “Advanced Color Theory” sort through all the hardware and software that’s available?
Farrell: Press-side software, inline spectrophotometry, and handheld instruments are all tools to evaluate color and monitor print performance. How to utilize these tools, interpret the data, and use color technology to increase your efficiency and accuracy are key elements we’ll be focusing on.
Wright: This session will look to get deep in the weeds—putting the “advanced” in “Advanced Color Theory.” The content will be a welcome challenge to print managers, technical representatives and prepress managers.
FLEXO: Print quality scoring is an essential way to improve efficiency, and “Making the Grade: How Print Quality Scoring Helps Printers” will offer concrete examples of exactly how. It’s a step beyond the theoretical and instead is a collection of real-world evidence, right? Can you shed some light on what will likely be shared?
Wright: Print card scoring can be a printer’s worst nightmare, but the scorecard is here to stay. In this session, printers will learn how to embrace it and make it work as a tool in their facility.
Farrell: With practical examples, you’ll see how print quality scoring can work in your favor to help address technical printing challenges, and improve communication and brand relationships. You will hear actual experience from a large converter on how they were able to turn what historically has been viewed as problematic and challenging, into a beneficial tool to be embraced.
FLEXO: A lack of standard operating procedures is a surefire way to inefficiency, but creating them is no small task. What will “Establishing Your Starting Points FIRST (101)” do to demonstrate their importance?
Farrell: When we don’t have solid standard operating procedures in place, quality, efficiency and productivity suffer. We all need to grow and one of the key ways we do that is to satisfy our customers. Running an efficient and effective organization starts with understanding the basics and implementing proven operating procedures.
Wright: There is a reason FIRST is regularly mentioned in presentations: The information contained cannot lead you astray. Prioritizing these procedures and getting to a point where you can implement them is what will be communicated in this session.
FLEXO: Coming off the previous session, “What Happens When FIRST Comes Second? (102)” looks at a scenario where we’ve got print challenges at various workflow stages, and examine the aftermath of not following standard operating procedures.
Farrell: It can be very helpful to learn from real-life examples when dealing with challenges. When procedures or best practices aren’t in place, or the upfront work of monitoring and controlling your process is lacking, we can have serious challenges meeting our customers’ needs. We’ll cover how to sort through problems and put measures in place to avoid them in the future.
FLEXO: Another attendee favorite, again updated for 2021: “Correcting the Defectives, Correct the Defects” will have not one but two virtual reality presses—wide web and narrow web—with which a panel of experts will identify and fix a handful of print problems.
Farrell: Taking a deeper dive into troubleshooting, this session will help hone in on production problems by seeing in real-time how a panel of industry experts tackles a problem head-on and from different viewpoints. Using VR on one example each for wide web and narrow web, you will be able to see the problem and solution play out in real-time. The ability to vote on the potential cause of each problem makes this session extremely interactive.
Wright: Again, this is a session that generated plenty of buzz. It’s very inventive and engages the attendee while teaching at the same time.
FLEXO: At the heart of every FORUM’s Flexo Quality Consortium (FQC) session are projects—both FQC- and student-led—focused on improving some aspect of flexography. What are the projects being reported on this year in “FQC: Investigating Methods to Increase Efficiency & Packaging Quality”?
Wright: The FQC session is always a favorite. Seeing the updates on the projects and then seeing the students present is a great sign of where we’re headed as an industry.
Farrell: We have amazing young people enthusiastic about our industry and this is a chance to engage with our future leaders. We will hear from the FFTA Rossini North America Flexographic Research Scholarship recipients, the Gary Hilliard FQC Scholarship recipient, as well as FQC project updates on opacity measurement methodology and measuring and maximizing plate life.
FLEXO: Screening technologies play a large part in efficient flexographic printing, and there’s a wide range of options catering to all kinds of specific applications. How will “Optimizing Print Quality Through Prepress Technology” demonstrate what they are and what they can do? What specific technologies will be showcased?
Wright: A lot of advancement has been made in this area in the last few years. This session not only will demonstrate what those prepress technologies can do, but prove it with testimonials.
Farrell: Two companies that are leaders in screening technology development will explore the technical benefits of screening, where it makes sense to use screening, and how to get the most out of the technology. You will also hear from two printers on how they use screening and what their experience has been in implementing and utilizing the technology.