Asahi Photoproducts, a provider of photopolymer flexo printing plates, said it will showcase its AWP family of water-washable flexographic plate solutions featuring Clean Transfer Technology, including its new AWP -DEW plate at Labelexpo Americas 2018.
Image: Asahi Photoproducts to showcase AWP family of water-washable flexographic plate solutions at Labelexpo Americasevent. Photo: courtesy of Asahi Photoproducts.
The company said the new AWP -DEW plate with washout speeds 2.5 times faster than previous plates makes it ideal for on-demand platemaking and a more efficient flexographic operation in even the busiest plants
At the event, which will take place from 25 to 27 September, the company will also showcase its AWP family of water-washable flexographic plate solutions, which feature Clean Transfer technology.
AWP plates offer various benefits, including advanced ink transfer for superlative ink coverage, consistent plate reproduction for precise registration and job-to-job consistency, reduced make-ready with fast run-up to color due to dot stability and predictability, 33% less plate production time required compared to solvent-based platemaking.
Asahi overseas sales manager Makoto Nagata said: “At the show, we will be showing flexographic print samples printed using AWP™ plates imaged on an Esko Crystal XPS system whose simultaneous UV main and back exposure produces highly consistent digital flexo plates.
“We are looking forward to welcoming visitors and sharing information about the possibilities created with the quick, consistent, and highest quality creation of plates using the Asahi AWP family of plates.”
Asahi’s AWP Clean Transfer technology serves as a viable alternative to conventional flexo printing plates. Its water washable printing plate technology helps to avoid the use of high temperatures or VOC-based solvents.
The technology also offers high register accuracy, enabling it to use for printing with a fixed color palette and odorless production.
It also helps to provide quality prints with significant improvement in overall equipment compared to traditional flexo plates.
Nagata further added: “Companies like Czech-based Colognia Press are seeing press uptimes of more than 50%, up from 25% with their previous plates, and even report running a 22-hour job with one set of plates, no stops, and with very consistent quality from beginning to end.
Asahi Photoproducts, a subsidiary of Asahi Kasei, was established in 1971 and engaged in the development of photopolymer flexo printing plates.