FLEXO 2003, BIRMINGHAM, UK -- March 4, 2003 -- Creo Inc. is demonstrating renewed focus on the flexographic market in Europe with new prepress solutions, industry resources and expertise at FLEXO 2003. Creo Europe packaging experts, David McBeth, sales director, and Amnon Shalev, marketing manager, are introducing sleeve-imaging capability on the next generation ThermoFlex(r) imaging device. This device retains the ability to image digital flexographic plates and film with formats up to 1321 x 2032 mm (52 x 80 in.). This provides flexibility for trade shops and converters that need to run digital plates, digital plates-on-sleeves and continuous sleeves, depending on the requirements of a specific customer or job. The new ThermoFlex device can significantly improve the productivity of today's plate-on-sleeve workflows and produce sleeves with staggered seams or lanes to a level not previously seen. An on-imager sleeve load/unload system minimizes potential damage to the sleeve's digital mask and substantially reduces the time required and difficulty associated with changing from one sleeve to the next. The system can also be used to facilitate the plate mounting and UV exposure steps required in a plate-on-sleeve workflow. Sheet-to-sleeve-mode turnaround is greatly facilitated by storing the sheet-imaging drum on the imager. In less than three minutes the drum can be decoupled and safely stored within the imager without heavy lifting equipment, which minimizes additional capital expenditures and space requirements, allowing even small trade shops and converters to benefit from this new technology. The new ThermoFlex includes semi-automatic changeover from plate imaging to sleeve imaging and accommodates sleeves with repeats up to 42 in. (1050 mm) and lengths up to 72 in. (1829 mm) in both continuous (seamless) digital photopolymer sleeve and digital plate-on-sleeve (POS) formats. Sleeve imaging productivity, regardless of repeat size, matches or exceeds current plate imaging specifications (2.75 linear inches per minute), provides the fastest sleeve imaging capability available. New Screening Technology... Creo is demonstrating MaxTone(tm) screening, an innovative technology for enhanced flexographic printing quality. MaxTone screening allows the user to specify a minimum halftone dot-size in microns and have the screening engine randomly remove halftone dots to maintain tonal percentages while ensuring that individual dots are all larger than the specified minimum size. This allows the reproduction of high-quality highlights. This allows the reproduction of high-quality highlights. MaxTone is available as an optional feature in version 2.1 of the Prinergy Powerpack(tm) workflow. New Trapping Technology... Creo is demonstrating a powerful new trapping technology for the Prinergy Powerpack 2.1 workflow that replaces the existing trapping module. This Creo-developed trapper is easier to use and is completely compatible with existing Prinergy(r) workflows.