BOHEMIA, NY—FTA’s Fall Conference 2019 took place last week, Oct. 28-30, in Charlotte, NC. With a focus on saving time and money, the three-day event demonstrated how adhering to Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications & Tolerances (FIRST), while aiming at a Characterized Reference Print Condition (CRPC6) can yield results comparable to offset printing.
The agenda included eight technical sessions that chronicled the flexographic printing of the cover of FLEXO Magazine’s October issue. Attendees followed along with their own print samples as presenters walked step-by-step through pre-production, the optimization, fingerprinting, characterization, process control and process improvement techniques, and a post-print comparison to an offset-printed cover. At multiple points, a virtual reality press from the Clemson University Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics showed those techniques done live and on stage.
“Looking back, I don’t know if there is anything that we would or should have done differently. The content was technical, enlightening and informative. Being a part of the print project and chairing the conference was such a pleasure,” said Program Chair Keith Nagle of Phoseon Technology. “I’m grateful to FTA for the opportunity and look forward to what opportunities are on the horizon.”
In addition to the conference sessions, attendees took advantage of the busy Tabletop Exhibit on Monday and Tuesday. With 60 exhibitors and even more industry experts on hand, it was the place to get insight, technical advice and guidance on all the latest in flexo.
“Our company will be looking at ways to apply the learnings from this year’s conference to our print facilities. The ability to network and discuss those topics with other industry professionals is a key part of what makes Fall Conference so valuable,” explained Haley Hendry of TC Transcontinental Packaging. “I found the information presented to be insightful. It was beneficial to see the importance of each step in the production planning process, beginning with the pre-pro meeting and continuing to the finished product.”
FTA would like to say thank you to companies that participated in the cover project as well as the event sponsors that helped make the event such a success! Those companies are: 3M, All Printing Resources Inc, Anderson & Vreeland Inc, Clemson University, Colorware USA Inc, Daetwyler, E.C. Shaw Co, Esko, Harper Corporation of America, Koenig & Bauer, MacDermid Graphics Solutions, Phoseon Technology and Siegwerk.
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