Prepress
Security printing goes for digital plate processing
Monday 28. September 2009 - Flint Group Flexographic Products offers the first digital plate for security printing - nyloprint WS 230 S Digital
Since film manufacturers announced that special films for security plate making will no longer be available, the security printers are forced to search for alternative technologies to image their letterpress plates. An efficient option is the mask ablation of digital plates. The technology is already established in the flexo and letterpress market for many years. The digital plates are masked with a black layer which is imaged by a diode, YAG or fibre-laser at a resolution of up to 10,000 dpi. This technology not only eliminates the film processing and the disadvantages of the image transfer via film, it also offers significant quality improvements for the security printers.
In addition to digital plates for direct and indirect letterpress security printing, Flint Group Flexographic Products now offers a digital version of the stencil plate. Hence conventional film processing can be replaced completely by digital mask ablation for all letterpress applications in security printing.
The new nyloprint WS 230 S Digital stencil plate provides the whole range of advantages given by digital plate processing like electronically data transfer and storage, which increase quality and save costs. Both the redundancy of the film and the fact that nyloprint stencil plates are water washable, are supporting an environmentally friendly plate processing. The new nyloprint WS 230 S Digital combines highest dimensional stability and repeatability with the ability of imaging finest details, which are the key factors for security printing.