Prepress

Inci.Flex first repro house worldwide to gain Esko Full HD Flexo Certification

Monday 04. November 2013 - Esko announces that Italian-based Inci.Flex is the first repro house in the world that achieved Full HD Flexo Certification. The company was the first in Italy to invest in Full HD Flexo last year, and now already passed Esko's rigorous certification process. Full HD Flexo, along with the Certified quality seal, enables Inci.Flex to fully exploit the capabilities of digital flexo printing and deliver consistent, high-quality jobs with sharper images, bright impactful solids and a wider color gamut.

Obtaining the Full HD Flexo Certification was of high importance for Inci.Flex. Shortly after installing Full HD Flexo in 2012, the company worked together with its customers to fine-tune their work and gain certification. “The converters we worked with were able to achieve remarkable print density and excellent definition with a low dot gain. That work – the plates, the production process and the printed results – was evaluated by Esko with great success: we got Certified!” says Enzo Consalvo, Inci.Flex CEO.
Following the success of these tests and their Full HD Flexo Certification, Inci.Flex is offering an “augmented flexo” solution to its customers, who are very satisfied with the quality of prints. “Exactly this quality makes flexo perfect for high-end flexo packaging business. The Full HD quality of flexo is coming closer and closer to gravure, giving gravure-like solid ink laydown of the correct solid density and vibrant color. Full HD Flexo offers an absolute quality that can not be achieved with any other solution,” adds Consalvo.
Continuous technological innovation
Founded in 1997, Inci.Flex employs more than 50 people and provides a range of flexo and gravure printing services to the packaging industry in Italy, other parts of Europe and northern Africa. “Our goal has always been to make investments that keep pace with technological developments. In doing that, we are better able to provide innovative solutions and, above all, quality to the market,” says Consalvo.
To support that goal, Inci.Flex started working with Esko in 2000, when they became one of the first companies to install Esko’s CDI Classic 5080. In 2008, after experiencing the quality and reliability the digital exposure of the CDI system provided, Inci.Flex purchased a CDI Spark 5080 with HD Flexo and Inline UV module. Later in 2010, the second CDI 5080 arrived, one of the first systems in Europe to be equipped with the Autoloader, an automatic plate loading system.
In July 2012, the company upgraded the second CDI Spark 5080 to take advantage of Esko’s Full HD Flexo technology. “The upgrade to Full HD Flexo has made a world of difference to us,” explains Consalvo. “First, we have replaced Inline UV with Inline UV2 which allowed us to select the type of dot – round or flat – according to the specific requirements of the job. Thanks to this new flexibility, our printer-customers can offer the best quality in terms of print dots. In addition, Full HD Flexo gives us total freedom to choose whatever plate best fits the business needs of our customers, including plates by DuPont, Flint, MacDermid, Asahi, with more to come as Esko continuously expands the portfolio of supported plates.”
Inci.Flex also uses Esko’s Automation Engine, a modular server that enables users to automate the prepress workflow with easy setup and management. Consalvo says: “More and more, we are trying to increase automation so that the trade flow can interface with production and streamline various processes. This enables us to continually monitor the status and movement of all our jobs, leading to much better productivity and increased customer satisfaction.”
About Esko Full HD Flexo
Full HD Flexo combines the performance of HighRes 4000 dpi optics with an exclusive screening technology for sharper and more accurate engraving. Thanks to UV technology, the main exposure is no longer an analog process, but a digital methodology which is extremely precise. The main exposure to UV light is performed inline after flexo plate engraving, without any operator intervention. This process provides excellent definition of points and line screens, uniform exposure of the plate, repeatability and predictability. The CDI installed at Inci.Flex is equipped with a system of UV digital main exposure, integrating the back exposure, imaging and automatic plate loading.
About Esko Full HD Flexo Certification
To obtain Full HD Flexo Certification, Esko customers have to submit multiple print samples produced using this technology. Esko specialists then check the quality of the submissions according to published parameters. Once certification is granted, customers receive a certificate plus a set of marketing tools that allow them to use the Esko HD Flexo Certification logo. The Certified companies can give customers a high quality standard, signifying their dedication to supply the best products available on the market.