Prepress
EskoArtwork announces installation of 1500th Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) at VT Graphics
Thursday 25. March 2010 - Trade shop integrates EskoArtwork Digital Flexo Suite and CDI to economically post-mount high quality plate patches
EskoArtwork, the market leader in packaging pre-production solutions and world leader in digital imaging of flexo plates, proudly announces that they recently installed the 1500th Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) at VT Graphics, who is using the flexo plate imager to create plates for point-of-sale displays and shipping containers.
Since its introduction as the worlds first digital imager for flexo plates at drupa in 1995, the Cyrel Digital Imager has established itself as the clear market leader. Today, an estimated 90% of all digital flexo plates worldwide are imaged on Esko CDI equipment. Just as impressive, while it took twelve years to install the 1000th CDI in 2007, it took less than three years to install 500 more.
“We are still seeing healthy adoption of our CDI flexo imagers,” comments Mark Quinlan, President, EskoArtwork North America. “Our customers find value in many innovations, whether the economy of using our direct to plate systems, exceptional print quality from plates using HD Flexo or, in the case of VT Graphics, the integration of hardware and software. The sale of the 1500th CDI at VT Graphics marks an important milestone for us.”
VT Graphics integrates EskoArtwork hardware and software to produce economical, high quality plates
Proud owner of the 1500th CDI, a CDI 5080 Spark with a high-speed, high resolution Optics 80 laser system is VT Graphics. For more than 42 years, Yeadon, PA-based VT Graphics has developed flexographic plates for point-of-sale displays and shipping containers. Its services include flexographic design and prepress; negative and plate manufacturing; and pre-mounting and plotter capabilities, which let VT Graphics supply production-ready mounts to reduce production lead times in the flexo post-print environment.
“VT Graphics has been a long-time customer of EskoArtwork technology, from structural and graphics software, to our Kongsberg tables, to our legacy EskoArtwork imagesetters. We do a lot of four-color process work, and a fair amount of seven and eight color work. The quality of the dot created by the CDI is exceptional. It lets us hold a 1% dotsomething we cant do with an analog process. And, digital flexo plates have progressed to the point they reduce fluting by as much as 20%,” comments Robert Mormile, President/CEO, VT Graphics. “The best part is that my dot gain curves are cut in half because the image on the plate is cleaner. The 135-150 lpi screen work on our CDI has brought us to markets that we could not enter before.”
Meanwhile, the Digital Flexo Suite for corrugated provides VT Graphics the added bonus of a workflow that encompasses digital flexo imaging right through to plate-ready mounted carrier sheets. It reduces full-format jobs into small patches that are economically imaged on a plate with positional transfer data that is sent to an EskoArtwork Kongsberg XL table for cutting and mounting. “The whole idea saves labor, materials and provides better quality controlthese efficiencies ultimately help us pass cost savings on to our customers,” remarks Mormile. “We have come to expect these kinds of solutions from EskoArtwork, and look forward to what they will develop in the future.”
Continuous stream of innovation
EskoArtwork maintains its market and technology leadership through persistent product development and enhancements. For example, EskoArtworks HD Flexo technology is bringing offset quality, 200-line screen flexo printing to converters worldwide. The off-line plate-loading table provides safe, damage-free and distortion-free plate handling throughout the entire plate making process, from loading to unloading in the imager, UV-exposure or washer. The EskoArtwork Digital Flexo Suites dedicated tools optimize plate productivity and repeatability. And, as converters continue to embrace in the round technology, EskoArtwork CDIs provide the widest product line able to produce sleeves to serve these markets.
“With the help of the EskoArtwork CDI, the demand for flexo related packaging is still growing,” says Jürgen Andresen, EskoArtwork Vice President Flexo Business, and one of the pioneers of the CDI. “Brand owners and converters continue to ask for digital flexo because of the enhanced print quality, increased productivity and consistent results from plate run to plate run.”