Flexcel NX boosts business at German platemaker

Germany’s Reproservice Eurodigital has invested in a Kodak Flexcel NX Wide System to streamline production and output.
 
Reproservice Eurodigital supplies digital flexo plates to packaging printers and brand owners, mostly for high-quality solvent and UV flexo printing on plastic film, aluminum and other substrates. It supplies Flexcel NX plates to more than 20 packaging printers, with digital flexo plates from Kodak accounting for more than half of the firm's flexo platemaking activities.
 
The Kodak Flexcel NX Wide Flexographic System enables the platemaking specialist to produce flexo plates up to 1067 x 1524mm. The system exploits the Kodak Flexcel NX Wide Imager to achieve high-resolution imaging of the thermal imaging layer. This results in a negative mask, which is laminated onto the Flexcel NX plate in the laminator, so that the sharp-edged mask image is in intimate contact with the photopolymer plate's surface. All subsequent steps with UV exposure are the same as when photopolymer flexo plates are processed in the normal way.
 
In addition, Kodak Squarespot imaging technology, coupled with platemaking using the Flexcel NX Wide System, ensures well-defined flat top dots on the plate, even with the finest highlight dots, which have sturdy bases, just like the dots of the higher tones.
 
Peter Hamm, managing director at Reproservice Eurodigital, said: ‘The system lets us reproduce the key 42 x 60in flexo press format. This larger plate size is essential for meeting our customers' needs and with the help of the Flexcel NX Wide System, we can now also print up to a maximum width of 1,400mm without having to mount the plates twice.’
 
‘With the Flexcel NX system, we no longer have to resort to a special curve to bump up the highlights. If necessary, we can even reproduce stable tonal values below one percent on the plates. Compared to classic digital LAMS technology, the tonal range is definitely larger. The sturdy dot bases guarantee consistent printing results. And screen builds explicitly adapted to one-off situations and substrates are a thing of the past.’
 
The Kodak Flexcel NX Wide System also supports Kodak Digicap NX Screening, a software-based feature that enables the application of a micro surface texturization pattern to the surface of all elements on the plate. Print applications that traditionally struggle with efficient ink transfer can now enjoy higher print densities, smooth solid area ink coverage and expanded color gamut with process printing.
 
Combined, this has provided commercial benefits to Reproservice Eurodigital and allowing it to win new customers.
 
Hamm added: ‘If we use Digicap NX Screening, the full format is imaged in just eight minutes. That’s the equivalent of almost 13 sq m an hour. In other words, the Flexcel NX Wide System gives us roughly three times the imaging productivity of the latest generation of LAMS CTP systems at the high-end of the market.’