The process allows converters to direct print onto corrugated and get results comparable to litho or pre-print, enabling flexible inventory control, resulting in significant cost reductions. “The same process,” says PRP General Manager Chris Green, “also achieves tremendous results for flexible packaging printers, as the dot gain received from the new plates is far less than both conventional digital or conventional flexographic plates, in addition to the greatly reduced setup times.
“For a long time we have been proponents of flat topped dots,” Green says. “They provide the most accurate delivery system for the ink over all other dot profile types. We had seen the tremendous benefits that our customers were able to achieve with our analog ExSpect plates and we wanted to achieve the same results within a digital environment. We were particularly pleased that in addition to the quality of the print we were able to achieve, we were also able to reduce setup times and in some cases even enable our customers to switch from a litho label to direct print with little or no compromise in print quality. In some cases, that saved our customers a great deal of money by providing more options.
“The new digital plates we have developed, which we have called Digital ExSpect, should provide our customers with even more options for their next print jobs, along with the advantages of a streamlined digital workflow.”