Continuous demonstrations will highlight how leading prepress and press technologies come together to deliver outstanding, consistent print quality at the lowest delivered cost. These demonstrations will dynamically present how impactful offset-like quality can be achieved cost effectively and efficiently with narrow web UV flexo—with no compromises and without the use of spot color inks.

“We are looking to change the mindset of what is achievable in flexo today, and thanks to Kodak’s innovative plate and prepress technology, we are able to demonstrate just how far flexo has come. Visitors will see incredibly challenging designs being produced that have outstanding shelf impact without the use of spot color inks,” comments Olivier Claude, General Manager for Print & Vice President Commercial Business EAMER, Kodak.

He continues, “Kodak has a deep understanding of both flexo and offset printing and we understand that the end-users, the brands just want the highest quality at the lowest cost, regardless of the print process. Our revolutionary KODAK FLEXCEL NX System and KODAK SPOTLESS Flexographic Solution provide the technology to make that possible.”

Throughout the day, leading narrow-web press manufacturer MPS will host the 15-minute live print demonstrations and presentations that will showcase how its latest innovations in press technology complement the Kodak prepress technologies and enable fast changeovers and unparalleled color stability.

 Eric Hoendervangers, Commercial Director of MPS Systems B.V., based in The Netherlands, comments: “High-quality dots play an important role in the Spotless Printing solution. Our Crisp.Dot technology guarantees a minimum of dot gain, full round dots, solid ink coverage and sharper printing of smaller fonts. Additionally, our Multi-Drive technology provides perfect registration for a broad range of materials, which is essential in achieving a stable and spotless color gamut. Spotless Printing is all about efficiency, and goes hand in hand with quality, mirroring the foundations on which MPS flexo presses are designed and built. We are honored to partner with Kodak and Reproflex 3 to demonstrate innovative solutions in flexo printing.”

The designs selected, which target challenging applications in the personal care and household product sector, would normally require at least seven or eight colors to print with traditional flexo. To really push the envelope, Kodak’s demonstrations will not only print without the use of spot color inks, but will also print at 300lpi.

“We carefully selected designs that would normally be a real challenge for flexo,” says Andrew Hewitson, Joint Managing Director, Reproflex 3, whose company is providing the prepress expertise for the collaborative demonstration. “We deal with these challenges every day and want to show how it really is possible to eliminate spot color inks from the workflow and still overcome the traditional concerns of color gamut, color stability and registration. A couple of the labels would normally be considered ‘offset’ designs, but it is the final design for a laundry care range that will prove to be the most talked about example. It will be printed both with four-color process and seven-color process on the same web, and visitors will be asked to consider whether the extra colors are worth the extra cost. We think they’ll be surprised at what they’ll see!”

After the demo, visitors will be encouraged to take label samples and check them against proofs that will be displayed on the booth while rolls of labels and samples will be available for viewing at both the MPS and Kodak booths throughout the whole show.