EskoArtwork installs 2,000th CDI

Manchester, UK-based digital reprographics house VCG Connect has taken a Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) from EskoArtwork, the 2,000^th machine from the series installed.
 
CDI is a digital imager for flexo plates, and the 2,000^th installed worldwide was the second CDI Spark 5080 with HD Flexo taken by VCG Connect in 2011.
 
VCG Connect is a graphics origination specialist for the print and packaging industry, serving many of Europe’s largest printers and brand owners. EskoArtwork solutions feature heavily in the company’s operations, with HD Flexo technology forming the basis of VCG Connect’s Q-Flex high-quality flexo platemaking and service developed by David Piercy, operations director, and Geoff Walton, technical director.
 
Jim McCormack, VCG Connect managing director, said: ‘We are known for our leading-edge innovative technology and that is why we work with EskoArtwork. In fact this year we have installed £800,000 (US$1.25 million) in capital equipment and we believe that is more than the rest of the UK trade shops put together.
 
‘We can now extend our tonal range with smooth vignettes, highlights and shadows and also adjust imaging resolution from job to job and produce sharper and more accurate imaging. As a result of the high quality; we have just won a major contract with a huge brand and 2012 will see us export over £750,000 of printing plates to nine countries including Russia and Poland.’
 
Piercy said: ‘In winning this work, we felt vulnerable with only one CDI. We were so satisfied with all the technical support that we had received since the installation of the first CDI Spark 5080, we had no compunction in ordering the second.’
 
CDI was introduced in 1995, and EskoArtwork claims that today almost 90 percent of all digital flexo plates and sleeves worldwide are imaged on one of its CDI devices.
 
Juergen Andresen, EskoArtwork vice president, Flexo Business, said: ‘It is fantastic we have reached this exciting milestone just a few years after the installation of the 1,000^th CDI and after less than two years of the 1,500^th installation. It's clear that the interest in this technology is growing as brand owners and converters continuously look to digital flexo for its enhanced print quality, increased productivity and consistent results from plate run to plate run.’
 
VCG Connect has also adopted HD Flexo. HD Flexo combines 4000 dpi HD optics with unique screening technologies to take advantage of sharper and more accurate imaging for an outstanding print quality. EskoArtwork said the aim of HD Flexo is to increase flexo printing quality and be a viable alternative to offset and gravure printing. With HD Flexo, the screen rulings in flexo can be increased, while at the same time the size of the smallest printable dot is reduced. Users of HD Flexo also benefit from being able to achieve the full tonal range of offset, greater run lengths and fewer washing cycles as well as improved shadow performance of their prints.
 
Said McCormack: ‘Since the investment in HD Flexo, we’ve seen a marked increase in the quality of the final product, which has gone down very well with our customers. They like the flat-top dots that enable them to run fewer colours at a lower cost or achieve finer detail. We have been taking a lot of work from gravure with many accounts moving over to flexo.
 
‘It is no longer believed that flexo is a poor relation to any print process. It has now come of age as a cost effective and high-quality alternative and next year we see demand increasing exponentially as the world’s top brands increasingly adopt its potential.’