Consumables
SINGING FROM THE SAME SONG SHEET
Wednesday 21. May 2008 - It is only possible to produce top quality print if the press, materials/ consumables, and the operator working by the side of the press are interacting in unison. Predictable performance is what every printer and supplier aims for - in reality achieving the quality goal can sometimes be much harder than expected due to the many and varied process inconsistencies associated with printing that arise.
Tom Kerchiss of RK Print Coat Instruments says:” In printing or indeed in any other process the need to Sing From The Same Song Sheet is obvious. By that I mean that consumables, ink, coatings, varnishes, and paper, board, film or foil materials must be optimised in order that they perform as required and expected when run on and through a press.”
Continuing Tom Kerchiss says: “Wouldnt it be good if the ink supplier, the substrate producer, etc, could standardise as many of their monitoring and quality control procedures using the SAME machine for reproducible and consistent results – a machine optimised to the conditions experienced by the printer/converter when printing in real world conditions.”
Such as machine or system is available, or at least systems for the user and producer of flexographic inks are available, and can be seen at DRUPA Hall 6 Stand A25-5.
The FlexiProof 100 and FlexiProof UV can be used by ink, resin, pigment producers, paper, film, foil and other substrate producers, flexo component producers (plates, anilox rollers, etc) and by any organisation that either supplies or plans to supply products that will commercially be produced on a flexographic press.
Compact in size and easily sited on a bench top the FlexiProof is a multi-tasking concept; a scaled down but component critical exact version of a flexographic production press, enabling users to achieve greater predictability of quality.
As a colour communication tool the FlexiProof is used by ink producers to trial new products, determining ink/substrate interaction and for batch monitoring (colour matching); printers use the system to trial new products (pilot runs) off the production press, which benefits the printer in that a production press is freed up just for production. Colour matching off press also saves time and reduces on press waste. Universities, laboratories and research centres also use the FlexiProof to further the flexo process; for R & D purposes, etc.
RK Print Coat Instruments Tom Kerchiss, developer and producer of the FlexiProof 100 and FlexiProof UV says: ” German ink manufactures, institutes, educational centres, component producers and others are amongst those that were quick to seize upon the opportunities afforded by these devices, which is why we view DRUPA as an excellent opportunity to renew acquaintances and meet with German and other customers.”
The Flexiproof has been supplied to amongst others: Degassa AG, Dupont GmbH, Merck, Flint Group (Stuttgart) Eckert GmbH, TH Goldschmidt, BASF and Michael Huber GmbH.