“It’s a very good solution for flexo platemakers looking to increase production efficiency by switching to LED exposure from fluorescent technology at a very competitive cost,” is how Adam Malengowski, Prepress Manager, for Polish flexo prepress trade shop Fleksograf studio prepress, describes his experience with the Shine LED Lamp Kit, innovated by Miraclon. In fact, the company was so satisfied with its experience as a beta site for the new technology that it promptly installed a second Shine LED Lamp Kit at a second production facility.

By utilizing customers’ existing fluorescent exposure frames, the Shine LED Lamp Kit is a simple, cost-effective route to the advantages of LED, retrofitted in the field in a few hours — around three, in the case of Fleksograf studio prepress. Benefits include consistent, predictable intensity over a much longer operating life (up to 5,000 hours compared to 800 hours for fluorescent tubes), faster exposure times (by 20% or more), and enhanced sustainability due to reduced waste and less power consumed. On press, the increased plate consistency leads to more efficient printing.

Founded in 2001 by Adam’s father Krzysztof, Fleksograf studio prepress operates across two production sites, in Druzyna, Wagrowiec, producing high-quality flexo plates for European wide-web packaging customers, mostly in the food and hygiene products markets. Production is 100% on FLEXCEL NX and FLEXCEL NX Ultra plates. After becoming one of the first Polish adopters of FLEXCEL NX Technology in 2010, the company added a second system with FLEXCEL NX Ultra Processor in 2018, following Krzysztof’s strategy of “innovative thinking, hard work and an uncompromising focus on quality.”

Consistent quality, faster exposures
Providing customers with consistent quality plates is one reason for investing in the Shine LED Lamp Kit, says Adam. “LED avoids one of the main issues with fluorescent tubes — the way they degrade over time, and at different rates. This means operators can spend a lot of time on process control, checking and recalibrating the tubes. In contrast, with the Shine LED Lamps they can just ‘Set It and Forget It’, because they’re confident exposures will be consistent over hours of production, from lamp to lamp and within each lamp.” He adds that because the LED lamps warm up and cool down instantaneously, exposures are “significantly faster — about 12 minutes for the main exposure compared to an average of around 22 minutes with fluorescent tubes. So, productivity has been given a real boost.”

More sustainable plate production
The extensive use of the FLEXCEL NX Ultra solvent- and VOC-free plate processing technology is testimony to Fleksograf studio prepress’s commitment to more sustainable plate production, another reason for the switch to LED. Says Adam: “Energy consumption is lower with the Shine LED Lamp Kit, we don’t have the issue and expense of disposing of fluorescent tubes at the end of their much shorter life, and more consistent exposures eliminate defective plates. It all adds up to a more sustainable proposition for us and our customers.”