Diamond First And Best In Show Enabled By Advanced Prepress Techniques And Asahi Afp-Top Plates

Tokyo, Japan, & Brussels, Belgium – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development, today congratulates its customer, the DS Smith plant in Fulda. DS Smith, a leading display & packaging supplier, is the recipient of two prestigious awards from the FTA Europe Diamond Awards. The company was recognized with a diamond first in the Super Wide Web Flexo Print on Paper category and also Best in Show due to the outstanding printing quality for its pre-printed liners produced for Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG. The inaugural FTA Europe Diamond Awards ceremony was held at the Hyatt Hotel in Düsselsdorf, 2nd June 2016, during the drupa 2016 exhibition.

The FTA Diamond Awards recognizes companies that have been Gold Award winners in their respective countries. DS Smith had achieved gold in a category of the EFIA UK awards in March and was then put forward to participate in the FTA Awards.

“We submitted printing samples for pre-printed liner we created for Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG. These images were printed in very high quality that compares favorably with conventional offset-printed packaging,” said Steffen Blankenburg, print production manager at the DS Smith plant in Fulda.

In producing the packaging, DS Smith strove to achieve a close match to the brilliance normally achieved with offset printing, but using fixed color palette 4-color flexography. “The challenge was to reach high brilliance comparable to offset printing. We were able to do this through a combination of the prepress expertise of our well qualified employees and the quality enabled by using Asahi’s AFP-TOPTM plates with Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer.” added Jan Brandtner, plant manager at DS Smith Pre-Press Services GmbH.

“This terrific achievement was the result of a very fruitful collaboration between Asahi and DS Smith over the last six months,” said David Galton, Sales Director for Asahi Photoproducts. “We are proud to have been part of this process and extend our hearty congratulations to DS Smith for this prestigious recognition.”

More than 200 like-minded individuals from across the European flexographic community came together to celebrate the best of flexography during the event. In addition to well-deserved recognition of exceptional performance, it was an ideal opportunity to celebrate the vibrancy and competitiveness of flexography whilst providing a perfect forum for colleagues to network.