Asahi Photoproducts plans to showcase its AWP of water-washable flexographic plate solutions at the upcoming Labelexpo Europe 2017 to be held at Brussels, Belgium, this September.

The company's technical experts will be present at the expo to explain visitors about the fixed colour palette printing, using up to seven inks to eliminate the need for spot colour inks.

As it uses fixed set of inks, there is no wash-up required between jobs and combo jobs can also be made easier.

Asahi Photoproducts Europe managing director Akihiro Kato said: “Labelexpo Europe is always a highlight in our show schedule. That is especially true this year as interest in higher quality and more efficient production of labels and packaging is heating up across Europe.

“At the show, our experts be on hand to help visitors better understand how Asahi AWP™ plates can improve OEE and profitability without any compromise in quality. Visitors to our stand will also be able to see printed application examples and get advice from our experts about the best plates for their individual needs.”

The Japanese company will also demonstrate the AWP- DEW plate solution that uses the properties of AWP DEF plates with the addition of faster plate processing speed, making the plate ideal for labels and packaging operations with higher plate throughput.

One of the Asahi’s flexographic printing plates is the Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer that enables a clean ink transfer and this prevents the ink from accumulating on the plate’s surface and shoulders in screen areas.

According to the company, Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer allows for kiss-touch printing pressure setting. It uses low plate surface tension, made possible by specially engineering Asahi polymer chemistry, to stop liquid flow.

Asahi claims that one of its satisfied customers is Colognia Press, a Czech-based label converter, who needed to find a way to improve OEE.

Colognia Press Desktop Publishing Manager Bohdan Holona said: “With the flexo plates we were using, we had excessive stop times to clean or replace plates. For long-run jobs, this meant half of the time to produce the job was downtime.

“And even for shorter runs, we were not happy with the consistency from beginning to end of the job, often requiring press stops to clean plates or otherwise adjust quality.”


Image: Asahi’s printing technology being used at Colognia Press. Photo: Courtesy of Asahi Photoproducts.