Soft and smooth plate results in no board crush, fewer flute marks, good ink density, for the ultimate in post-print flexographic quality.
Asahi Photoproducts has announced the availability of a new flexographic plate. Asahi AFP-Leggero CleanPrint plates have been designed for printing on lower quality low-linear corrugated board. This soft plate is said to deliver printing without board crush, good ink density with reduced washboard effect, and can be deployed for brown-box corrugated applications such as fruit trays and single-colour logo type printing.
Dieter Niederstadt, technical marketing manager for Asahi Photoproducts, commented: “With the growing use of corrugated board packaging around the globe, brands and retailers increasingly seek ways to increase quality appearance and protect their goods at the same time. Asahi’s AFP-Leggero flexographic printing plates deliver both higher quality and better protection of the product by not damaging the corrugated box flute structure. This is a very new approach inside Asahi, not only to focus on print quality aspects, but also to add value for protection of the packed goods.
“Our ‘Just Kiss. No Crush.’ Tagline reinforces this quality and protective result delivered by Asahi AFP-Leggero CleanPrint plates. In addition, as with all of our CleanPrint plates, the Leggero plates ensure less waste, fewer press stops for plate cleaning and consistent exceptional quality throughout the run, the hallmark of Asahi’s CleanPrint flexo plates. We expect packaging converters will be able to achieve up to 15% improve in overall equipment effectiveness when they use these plates for corrugated post-print, delivering a solution in harmony with the environment.”
CleanPrint plates from Asahi Photoproducts have been engineered to transfer all remaining ink to the printed substrate. The AFP-Leggero CleanPrint effect is achieved because of the soft plate base material. The result is clean printing. Another important advantage of Asahi’s CleanPrint plates, including AFP Leggero, is that they need not be cleaned as often as conventional digital solvent plates. Reduction of plate cleaning creates productivity improvement as well as more consistent quality.
Niederstadt concluded: “With AFP-Leggero soft-touch kiss printing, not only is the historical problem of board crush and washboarding virtually eliminated due to the softness of this plate, but there is also virtually no dot bridging and good ink laydown. That means that areas of solid colour as well as highlight areas are clean and crisp, as are fine lines and smaller types. This is the ideal plate for corrugated board post-print, and will enable packaging converters to broaden the range of applications they can produce for customers, especially those that are not willing to sacrifice quality.”
