The FlexoKITE Technology Center, located at the Apex International manufacturing facility at Nashik, a state in western India, organized an open house on August 26 which focused on “Flexo Simplified with ECG.”
It was a closed event with label customers across India, especially from western region of the country. The center is managed by Apex International together with its partners Avery Dennison, Bobst, Cosmo Film, Dupont, Esko, Flint, Numex, Swedcut, and Tesa.
“If done correctly,” said Nick Harvey, Technical Director at Apex International, “ECG will achieve higher resolution print with high quality and up to a 50 percent increase in production time, 30 percent less ink cost, 90 percent less wash up solvent cost, less tape, and less anilox, moving toward a greener and more sustainable solution.”
The Open House included the factory visit of the anilox manufacturing facility at Apex showcasing the design workflow by Esko, pre-press plate making by Dupont, and a sample produced on the Bobst M5 press. The objective of these designs was to demonstrate how quickly jobs can be changed over and set up when ECG is adopted.
During the event, FlexoKITE managed to set up and print at production speed three designs on two substrates in a record time of 21 minutes 32 seconds.
FlexoKITE is a fully equipped flexo facility that was designed and set up to provide a supportive base for the flexo industry in Asia. Assisting with R&D testing and fine-tuning designs, printers can convert gravure or letterpress designs to flexo without impacting their own production environment or time, according to the company.
The Tech Center includes Esko’s advanced screening software, DuPont’s Cyrel fast thermal plate processor, and Bobst’s M5 narrow web flexo press, which is integrated with Apex GTT aniloxes and Flint’s UV Force ink system.
Caption: Nick Harvey demonstrating ECG during FlexoKITE Open House.
