Esko to demonstrate exceptional workflow, color, flexo plate, finishing and wide format technologies

Ghent (Belgium) – Esko will have a busy September demonstrating a variety of workflow and production tools for packaging, wide format, digital and commercial print at three important events: PRINT 13 (Booth 4231, September 8-12, McCormick Place, Chicago), and PACK EXPO (Booth S6532, September 23-25, Las Vegas Convention Center), which is partnering with the AICC 2013 Annual Meeting, September 23-25, 2013, The Encore Hotel - Las Vegas, NV.

“To give an example of how well both our software—and Kongsberg tables—operate, Esko is giving away two-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer during PRINT 13 and PACK EXPO. The labels were completed through a partnership with HP and Esko, with label substrates provided by MACtac. At PACK EXPO we will also give them away in their own cartons,” explains Tim Zula, Director, Marketing Communication, Esko Americas. “The artwork was designed and prepared in Adobe Illustrator using our Esko DeskPack plug-ins. An HP digital press printed the labels, driven by an Esko digital front end, while an Esko Kongsberg table cut the printed sheets into separate labels and cartons.”

Solutions for a wide range of printers at PRINT 13

Every four years, the world’s graphic communications industry convenes for PRINT 13 to rejuvenate, energize and find the trending business solutions and exciting new profit opportunities. Esko returns to the quadrennial PRINT 13 with product areas that are of interest to packaging, designers, commercial printers, and wide format printers.

At the booth there will be an area for demonstrations of Suite 12.1, Esko’s latest version of software solutions covering an entire range of design, workflow and collaboration. Esko will show how its Equinox tools extend color gamuts for flexo and digital presses. Esko partner, and Danaher sister company X-Rite will be on the booth, showing their color management solutions and demonstrating how Esko color management works with PantoneLIVE™.

The combination of Esko's Color Engine and PantoneLIVE™ ensures accurate and consistent color data throughout the packaging supply chain. Because the brand color lives in the cloud, everyone in the supply chain can access it, no matter where in the world they are. The combination of PantoneLIVE spot color profiles with Esko’s unique and patented spectral ink model provides absolute accuracy and predictability for spot color simulation.

Esko will have a CDI 2420 digital flexo imager and a display area dedicated to Full HD Flexo. Finally, a high speed Kongsberg i-XP24 finishing table will be cutting samples created on a digital press.

All forms of packaging demonstrated at PACK EXPO

The PACK EXPO show floor showcases state-of-the-art materials, machinery and methods for packaging and processing from 1,600 exhibiting companies. PACK EXPO draws brand owners seeking options for their entire operational line — from packaging, to processing, to integrated packaging-processing solutions.

On the stand, Esko offers tools that allow brand owners to design and create better packaging, and participate more actively in the packaging supply chain. Esko Suite 12.1 will also be featured along with two popular design components: ArtiosCAD structural and Studio 3D graphic design tools. Meanwhile, a Kongsberg i-XE10 finishing table, an exceptional tool for packaging prototypes, will be cutting cartons, for the give-away hand sanitizers, printed on an HP digital press.

A sponsor of the AICC Designers Lab

While exhibits are partnered with PACK EXPO, the AICC 2013 Annual Meeting features a three-day series of workshop tracks, round tables, general sessions, networking and social events at a separate venue. Co-sponsored by Esko is the 2013 Designers Lab—open to corrugated, folding carton and rigid box graphic and structural designers—where they can learn new techniques in both structural and graphic design. Designers also get a chance to show off their skill and talent as they participate in a “real-world” design-to-problem challenge. Two of the significant tools they will use during the competition are ArtiosCAD structural design software and an Esko Kongsberg XN20 finishing table.

A wide array of prepress and design tools on display

“Esko solutions, in one way or another, touch the vast majority of all packaging created in the world. We are proud that brand owners—who will visit us during PACK EXPO, and converters and printers, whom we will see during PRINT 13 and at AICC 2013, consider our products vital to their packaging development—and that they seek us out at these shows,” explains Mark Quinlan, President, Esko Americas. “We consider ourselves important partners to all of them, and are happy to welcome them and offer any assistance we can.”

At PRINT 13 and PACK EXPO, Esko will focus on its trademark technologies: Suite 12.1 workflow and color management software, CDI flexo plate imagers with Full HD Flexo technology, and Kongsberg finishing tables.

Suite 12.1 software portfolio offers new possibilities

Esko will highlight the latest version of its Suite 12 software solutions. While the wide range of design, prepress and workflow applications will be on display, Esko will also focus on new solutions for:

• “Web to …” Esko solutions combine advanced workflow automation and smart MIS integration with online approval and collaboration tools to meet the needs of print businesses and their clients.
• Integration with on-press Visual Inspection Systems – Users can define areas on a job for inline visual inspection systems. This significantly reduces overall press setup time since the system receives its setup data directly from Esko Automation Engine, using JDF. With the inspection area defined upstream, it is easier to standardize the production process across multiple sites, presses and operators.
• Compliance and Content Management – Significant portions of packaging content are subject to regulatory compliance, such as ingredient tables and nutrition facts. Brand owners are also concerned about the accuracy of logos, taglines, images and icons. Esko tools and workflow components ensure compliance and secure content management for labels and packaging.
• Combi-Press Support – Some jobs combine different print processes (offset, flexo, digital, screen, gravure). Each process requires different preparation. Combi-Press support eliminates the need for a skilled operator to interrupt multiple workflows to accommodate the various required processes.

For designers, Studio is a fast and easy way to turn ideas into beautiful 3D images for creative development or to impress a client. There is no more need to produce physical mock-ups all the time. Users have an accurate and technically correct package on the screen. While conventional mock-ups may be required, with Studio virtual mock-ups are faster and cheaper for initial design reviews. ArtiosCAD is the world’s most popular structural design software for packaging design. With dedicated tools specifically designed for packaging professionals for structural design, product development, virtual prototyping and manufacturing, ArtiosCAD increases productivity throughout a company. ArtiosCAD is the ideal product for all corrugated, folding carton and POP, POS, FSDU display designers.

Getting the color right

Color consistency is critical in brand recognition. Defining accurate brand and spot color standards is the first step in maintaining consistency. Meanwhile, demand for shorter packaging production runs for targeted campaigns and product variations are increasing. Extended gamut printing is one of the ways to meet these challenges. It lets a company print faster with superb quality while lowering printing costs. Equinox, Esko´s solution for extended gamut printing, standardizes printing presses on any set of 5, 6 or 7 inks. Users save on inks (and plates) for packaging work and printers save time as the press workload between jobs is reduced to merely changing printing plates.

Full HD Flexo: Quality making printers reconsider how to print jobs

At a dedicated section of the Esko stand, visitors will learn more about HD Flexo and Full HD Flexo through real-life production samples that demonstrate the quality and extended color gamut. With HD Flexo, many printers have moved jobs from offset and gravure presses to flexo. Full HD Flexo delivers very high quality print with impactful solids and smoother highlights. The plates print more consistently than standard digital flexo plates. Full HD Flexo also eliminates manual steps traditionally associated with flexo platemaking, including back and main exposures. HD Flexo may be implemented without scrapping existing equipment and working methods.

Esko CDI flexo plate imagers produce HD Flexo and Full HD Flexo plates. There is a CDI for every need: from narrow web label printing, to flexible packaging and wide format corrugated printing; from one color printed corrugated boxes to highly sophisticated multi-color packaging and even security printing.

Getting digital jobs finished

Kongsberg tables are used to cut and finish prototypes, labels, short run packaging, and wide format jobs. There is a variety of tables for diverse uses. Three different Kongsberg tables will be on display and used during the September events:

The Kongsberg i-XP24, made especially for handling the combination of corrugated board and other rigid or roll materials used in POP products and product displays, offers exceptional productivity and throughput. i-cut Vision Pro registers the actual dimensions and positions on the printed result to assure finishing is adapted to the graphic’s shape.

The Kongsberg XN is easily the most versatile digital finishing device ever introduced. It comes with a wide range of specialty tools offering speed, power and flexibility to automatically handle a wide variety of materials, such as corrugated, folding carton, solid board, foam, wood and a long list of plastics. MultiCUT-HP (High Power) is equipped with a water-cooled milling spindle delivering up to three times faster milling speeds.

The Kongsberg i-XE provides an efficient and versatile finishing solution for short-run production of articles for visual communication, labels, signs and displays. The wide range of specialty tools automatically handle a wide variety of materials, such as papers, labels, folding carton, thin styrene or polypropylene, and a long list of popular stocks for digital presses.

“In September we will be meeting with a wide range of print and graphics shops—from flexible and corrugated packaging to labels, wide format, and commercial print,” concludes Quinlan. “Esko is excited with the wide range of software and hardware solutions we have to make any facility produce higher quality work print more efficiently. We look forward to working with everyone to show how our unique solutions can make a big difference—no matter what they print.”