Leading flexo supplies company GMS Pacific is set to make a splash with the launch of a new water wash out plate into Australia and New Zealand
GMS has been exclusively supplying Toray plates to Australian and New Zealand printers for the past 30 years. Toray is well known as the market leader in letterpress plates through its Torelief range, now the company is set to make a similar impact in flexo plates with Toreflex OPM, a water wash out plate that is available in both digital and analogue versions.Toreflex provides the same performance qualities of solvent wash out plates, but without the need for solvents. Amir Gergis, business development manager at GMS Pacific says, “The run length, dot quality and press performance of Toreflex OPM is outstanding, but more importantly the plate provides a huge time saving in drying. Where a solvent plate would take between one and three hours to dry, Toreflex takes a maximum ten minutes. This delivers dramatic make ready savings to printers, enabling them to get print to market much quicker than previously possible.”
The environmental benefits of Toreflex are evident in its elimination of solvents, commonly used in washing the plate out. Flexo printers are beginning to come under pressure from their clients, particularly the big brand owners, to deliver environmental credentials. Then the brand owner can, with justification, present their own credentials to their customers, their shareholders and the authorities. Printers who can provide environmental benefits to their clients will be the ones that, all things being equal will win the job and keep it.
Certainly this has been proven in the offset world where those printers that are at the forefront of the environmental movement are clearly doing well, they are investing in new equipment, winning new business and surging ahead in what is a difficult market. Flexo printers who can claim with some credibility to be pursuing an environmental goal are likely to follow suit, and certainly solvents from the production process is a major environmental step forward.
The elimination of solvents also makes in-house plate making a lot more straight forward, and less expensive than was previously possible. Amir Gergis says, “By eliminating the need for solvent management, recycling and OH&S, a whole swag of capex and ongoing costs are gone. For the printer or converter water wash out plates represents a whole new ball game. The whole production process is so much simpler. There is no need to invest time or money in solvent management requirements.”
GMS is aiming to take the water wash out message direct to the nation’s flexo printers, narrow, mid and wide web, as well as to the traditional market of trade houses. Gergis says, “Printers and converters will be able to produce the highest quality flexo plates, in a fraction of the time previously required and with minimal effort in both production and post production solvent management. Clearly there are no environmental concerns with water. This all means they will be able to turn around work in a significantly faster rate than was previously possible and have total control over the job.”
The new Toreflex OPM plate has been extensively field tested, both in Japan by Toray and in Australia by GMS. Technical applications specialist Neil Flowers says, “Toreflex OPM will perform to rigorous standards here in Australia. Flexo printers will be assured that not only are they dramatically improving their turnaround times and printing in an environmentally friendly way, but they can know that the performance of OPM leaves nothing to be desired.”
According to Flowers the properties of the plate are highly advanced, he says, “The ink transfer for instance is simply excellent.” Having recently returned from the Toray factory in Japan Flowers is confident the new OPM plate will be well received in Australia and New Zealand. “The technology behind this plate is very impressive, it has been extensively tested by the technology team at Toray and has outperformed the first generation of LT plate material in all applications both locally and overseas”, he says. “The plates are easy to make, and those that have trialled it have already switched over”.
This is a completely new plate from Toray, designed from the ground up for flexo applications rather than using letterpress plate technology adapted to flexo as many other manufacturers have done. It has a higher resilience to solvents and UV inks for longer runs, holds finer dots, and has excellent ink transfer properties.
Available in 1.14 mm (45 thou) and 1.70 mm (67 thou) sizes, the new OPM plate is available now for conventional analogue users, with the black mask digital version available beginning 2009.
“In-house plate making gives printers and converters ultimate control” says Flowers, and the new OPM plate gives exactly that. It’s quick and easy to make, with finished plates in less than 45 minutes, and the results on press speak for themselves, and it is assuring for printers to know the plate is not harming the environment”.
Toreflex OPM is now being launched in Australia and New Zealand, with the narrow web label market a key constituency, as are wider web flexo printers. Maximum plate size for Toreflex OPM is 762x1016mm.
Supplier GMS Pacific has a vast wealth of flexo knowledge and experience, having been a key player in the label and tag sectors for the past 30 years, and has itself put in more than 150 narrow web presses, so its understanding of the process cannot be doubted. Flowers himself has been in the trade for the past 25 years.
Amir Gergis says, “Flexo has gained ground because it provides high quality, high speed and cost effective printing solutions on a wide range of substrates, and progressive printers are moving strongly into flexo. My observation is that at first they are fairly tentative, but once in they are moving quickly because the benefits put them in a competitive advantageous position. By using the new Toreflex OPM plate that advantage will be highlighted.”
