A “new standard in quality and environmentally smart flexo printing” was the target for a new partnership between DuPont Packaging Graphics and Sun Chemical. Linking Sun’s WetFlex wet-on-wet flexo printing process with the DuPont Cyrel Fast Digital solvent-free plate making process for photopolymer plate technology, the co-operation is said to have obtained “previously unachievable levels of print graphics while providing the market with a solvent-free process that can contribute to sustainability improvements in printing and packaging”.
R and D teams from both companies worked together to determine the optimal Cyrel photopolymer printing plates for the WetFlex process. The Fast plates outperform all Cyrel solvent plates in terms of print quality and staying clean on press. The combination with the WetFlex process produces some of the highest print quality graphics ever seen.
The Cyrel Fast Digital system is said to lower energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and eliminate the impact solvents have on the waste stream. It reduces total plate production time to less than one hour by eliminating the wash-out and drying steps.
Using the WetFlex process, printers no longer need to monitor VOCs or compensate for viscosity, solvent losses and dot fidelity gains - while capitalizing on the advantages of electron beam curing. Sun’s UniQure ink system makes wet trapping possible, advancing print fidelity in the flexo process to levels comparable to gravure, it is claimed.
“Working with DuPont to optimize the results of the WetFlex process helps flexo grow its position as the process of choice around the world for high quality, high impact packaging,” says Richard Pettifor, Sun’s president, North America Packaging. “We can resolve the quality-versus-green conundrum for our industry.”
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