Flexo Trade School holds grand opening

Flexo Trade School holds grand opening
To celebrate its relocation to a new 12,000 square foot location in Fort Mill, SC, USA, the Flexographic Trade School (FTS) will hold a grand opening on October 11. Fort Mill is located just outside Charlotte, NC.
Concurrent with the celebration is a Networking Tabletop Exhibition, featuring more than 50 of the school’s vendor sponsors. Attendance at the event is free, but only FTS vendor sponsors may purchase a tabletop.
On October 10 the school will sponsor a golf challenge, which is open to all flexo-related companies wishing to participate. The event is limited to 144 golfers in a scramble format.
The school has been training flexo press operators for more than five years and has supplied the industry with hundreds of skilled workers in 37 states, as well as placements overseas.
Today, FTS is offering free training for members of the US armed forces who return from active duty in Afghanistan or Iraq. They can receive the training after completing a mechanical skills test.
The school now features a complete prepress and platemaking division. Initial prepress classes are dedicated to provide training for companies involved with some element of expertise in computer graphics, either flexographic or offset. In the near future, say school officials, students will be taken with little graphics knowledge and trained to be employable flexo prepress operators.
Plate processing equipment includes machinery from Agfa, Dupont and Esko-Graphics.
The school recently took delivery of a new STS automatic butt splicer from Martin Automatic, of Rockford, IL. The STS 05-13-31 has been installed on a 10″ 8-color Mark Andy 2200 press.
FTS is independently owned by Art Fields and Robert Smithson, and is supported by vendor sponsors and converter members.
For information about the grand opening, the vendor exhibition or the golf outing, contact Shae Fields: [email protected], 803-802-5211.