25 years and growing

Flexotecnica celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The Italian company was founded in 1979 and started building flexo presses suitable for printing on paper and plastics films for packaging applications in 1980. The main goal was "development of simple technical solutions in relation to the materials to be printed".

The very first stack presses, 724/726 and Radios, represented the start point and a stepping stone towards the nearest markets, as Europe was considered the domestic market. From then on, a succession of simple CI flexo presses were designed following the evolution of the international markets. This led to the expansion of the production facility until the mid 80s in the industrial area of Tavazzano (Lodi) with a new plant inaugurated in 1987.

Its innovative solutions gained the company a strong position in many countries in an increasingly competitive market.

At the beginning of the '90s, Flexotecnica introduced its "narrow web" series – central drum – known as "One man, one press". This novel concept brought the company "a wave of orders" and increased its presence in the market.

Alongside this product range, the first computerized system with numerical control (SEI/FNC) was developed for pressure and register control with logging of printing parameters: an important milestone in growing flexo to a higher quality level.

In 1989, the company tested one of the widest flexo presses installed in Europe at that time for preprint, a 3,100mm width Megas delivered to a Swedish paper mill.

The merger with Cerutti in 1994 marked an important turning point which helped Flexotecnica grow and accounted for the 1996 expansion of the plant in Tavazzano. It was then one of the first manufacturers to produce a 'sleeve press' - the Tachys (main picture) - designed to offer quick job change-overs.

Flexotecnica machines have always been exported all over the world. Through the commercial network of Cerutti, the company acquired an important share of the flexo market 'par excellence' - North America.

In order to be "tuned in" with the North American market, it was decided to invest in the development of a machine for printing folding cartons up to 750g/m² in line with a flat or rotary die cutter - to produce finished cartons in a single working cycle.

Since Drupa 2000, the presses have been increasingly fully sleeved, even for larger widths and repeats up to 10 colours, and above all 'gearless', to offer the possibility of having step-less variable repeats - drawing flexo nearer to the capabilities of offset and rotogravure.

A long time has passed from the first Radios running at 150m/min, to the high performance of today's gearless models (such as the Chronos, smaller picture) reaching 500m/min.

The evolution of sleeved presses for greater widths and repeats up to 10 colours with oversized dimensions has spurred on the company to engineer production enhancing systems. These include SSC (Safe Sleeve Change), which allows makeready of unused print decks during production; or the SRS (Smart Ride System) – special trolleys with lifting platforms – for safer and easier changes of heavier sleeves and adaptors needed to cover large repeats.

Sales and marketing manager Maria Costantino concludes: "We want to thank all our customers and suppliers, and everyone in the Flexotecnica team who made it all possible."