Maximize uptime! Minimize waste! Printers face that demand daily. And 2022’s business forecast places those concerns as top priorities.
Today’s challenges, as outlined by printers, are set to be addressed at FTA’s FORUM 2022. Here, the group of 18 session chairs, charged with assembling the agenda, discuss the results of the latest FLEXO Magazine Flash Poll and their fit with FORUM.
The teams and their respective areas of expertise are:
- Print Quality eXchange and the Print Score Card: Kevin Bourquin, VP operations at Cyber Graphics; Rory Marsoun, global account manager at Esko
- The Great Anilox Debate 2022: Sean Teufler, director product support at Miraclon; Peter Mulheran, VP & GM at Eaglewood Technologies
- Welcome to Our Pressroom: Scott McLeod, technical director at Transcontinental Robbie; Shawn Oetjen, technical continuous improvement manager at AWT Labels and Packaging
- How Do I Fix This?: Catherine Haynes, prepress and pressroom technical resources and training specialist at All Printing Resources Inc; Kayla Rogers, marketing director at Sonoco Institute, Clemson University
- Taking Your Flexography Further: Dan Blackburn, global packaging graphics leader at Kimberly-Clark; Dr. John Anderson, director advanced print applications at Miraclon
- CxF in Action: Dan Uress, CEO at Colorware USA; Steve Smiley, principal at SmileyColor & Associates LLC
- FQC: Research in Motion – Pioneering Solutions: Jean Engelke, FQC Board Chair; Joe Riccardella, continuous improvement manager at ABX Innovative Packaging Solutions
- It’s Always the Ink’s Fault: Ed Dedman, flexo technical support manager at Zeller + Gmelin Printing Inks; Moe Rahmeh, technical customer service functional excellence director at Sun Chemical
- Improving Print Quality Through Optimization: Bobby Congdon, assistant director at Sonoco Institute, Clemson University; Brad Gasque, flexo applications consultant at DuPont Cyrel Solutions
They have been working side-by-side with FORUM 2022 Chair Bart Wright of Pacificolor and Co-Chair Laura Wright of CSW Inc in making certain the meeting and all its components hit the mark. Bart explains, “From the very first brainstorming meetings, we asked the question, ‘What do printers want to know and need to know?’; plus, ‘What can they immediately take back and use?’ FORUM 2022 is really based on that.”
Laura elaborates on the point: “Every session is about resolving some type of issue, whether it be in production, business development of meeting the needs of a brand owner… Attendees will leave with an arsenal of techniques for making their print operations more efficient and effective at meeting customer needs.”
Here, in roundtable format, the session chairs marry the Flash Poll and Forecast to the FORUM. Printers looking to engage in identifying solutions won’t want to miss the experience the person-to-person networking experience set for March 13-16 will bring.
FLEXO Magazine: A recent FLEXO Magazine printer poll on 2022 business prospects found 78 percent of printers projecting growth, 73 percent seeing production volumes increasing, 72 percent operating at near full capacity and 58 percent resolving to continuously improve by getting better, more consistent and less wasteful. In focusing on maintaining this momentum and why it’s essential, please comment on how your session will reflect what’s happening and where things might take us.
BOURQUIN & MARSOUN: As an industry, we have always adopted Print Quality Management to maintain momentum and get better. This could be as simple as a sharpie and spectrophotometer, or as complex as software and inline spectral measurements and everywhere in between. This miss, however, is the lack of communication throughout the supply chain of what we were actually really managing to. We all had expectations, but they could be rather different.
The adoption of PQX removes this ambiguity and ensures all supply chain partners have equal equity and expectations of what we need to be producing. We are on the cusp of finally using a tool that defines what we are trying to manage and provide a way for multiple systems to talk and exchange print quality expectations and execution data.
TEUFLER & MULHERAN: The Great Anilox Debate will provide to the viewer/attendee a clearer picture on suitable uses for the various engravings; thus saving them time and materials, both of which have become valuable commodities.
McLEOD & OETJEN: We are all busier than ever and face more stringent customer expectations, coupled with supply chain constraints. To assure we keep our customers happy, it is important that we continue to leverage everything we can to produce the highest quality print in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of waste.
HAYNES & ROGERS: At the prospect of volumes continuing to increase and a majority of facilities reporting they are operating at near capacity, a focus on managing processes and optimizing troubleshooting strategies has never been more important. The “How Do I Fix This?” session directly addresses practical methods to tackle issues that cause wasted downtime and materials.
BLACKBURN & ANDERSON: Have you ever thought about utilizing the subtractive color model to create white instead of black? Do you want to boost your shelf impact with high-end and highly eye-catching graphics that move, but also achieve a sustainable solution? The session on “Taking Your Flexography Further” will dive into some cutting-edge new technologies that are seeing exponential growth and success due to consumer trends and desires, along with economic or social drivers and impact.
URESS & SMILEY: With a constant drive to improve quality and reduce rework, ensuring you’re controlling to the correct target is critical. By adopting a CxF workflow, where colors are exchanged electronically, errors can be reduced and production efficiency increased with confidence in delivering the color the customer expected.
ENGELKE & RICCARDELLA: The FQC session intends to provide insight into growth, efficiency and increased print quality. Presenters will look at measurements of plate wear to predict plate life performance which may eliminate potential print variation and downtime, investigate the use of surface screening to reduce anilox roll volume and validate potential growth opportunities in soy-based inks. Research will also investigate the printing of battery electrodes using the flexographic process and the Phoenix Challenge College Competition-winning team will present the rebranding of a company using the flexographic process.
DEDMAN & RAHMEH: While “It’s Always the Ink’s Fault” is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to what regularly goes on in many pressrooms, the content is completely relevant to these poll results. Every printer we work with is experiencing record-breaking growth and most are busier than ever before. In these times, it’s even more important to avoid wasting valuable production time chasing problems that can be prevented by implementing steps in the plateroom, inkroom and pressroom to create optimal conditions that allow you to attain correct color, best print quality and increased productivity. Our session will provide information from leading industry experts to help you do just that.
CONGDON & GASQUE: Given the growth the market is seeing and production volumes increasing, many converters must run their presses faster to keep up with demand. However, faster run speeds introduce their own challenges and downfalls if not optimized properly. You want to run the press faster to deliver product to customers more quickly but also want to reduce press downtime for quality concerns. Printers will quickly realize the ROI on taking the time to properly optimize their entire print package (screens, plates, inks, anilox) for high-speed printing. Our session, “Improving Print Quality Through Optimization,” will address these challenges seen with high-speed and longer pressruns.