Vandalia, OH (USA) -- EskoArtwork (www.esko.com), the world leader in digital imaging of flexo plates, announces the North American introduction of the Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) Spark 1712, a small footprint, cost-effective flexo plate and film imager specifically for narrow web tag and label printers.

"EskoArtwork's assessment is that there is substantial interest among trade shops and flexo converters with small narrow web presses who typically process 2,000 square feet of material manually-a film replacement market that fears that their film imagesetters are becoming obsolete or are facing expensive repair costs," explains Jan Buchweitz, EskoArtwork CDI product manager. "Because CDIs are so flexible, it allows users to continue to image film, along with the opportunity advance to a digital workflow, direct to plate. The tremendous thing about this small imager is that most of this market runs solvent flexo plates-although dry film processing is also available. With this simple addition, no further changes are necessary for these companies to move from analog to digital and ensure their technology workflow for years to come."

The CDI Spark 1712, along with the entire CDI family, is one of the most versatile imagers available, able to image digital flexo plates, foil-based digital letterpress plates, digital silkscreens, chemistry-free film such as PCI Laserpoint II, and chemistry-free offset plates. After switching from analog to digital film with a CDI, EskoArtwork customers generally report a 20% cost reduction in their plate making.

The CDI Spark 1712 external drum design with vacuum system and EasyClamp for fast and most convenient plate loading can image plates and ablative film up to an A3 (16.5" x 11.8") size and .12" thick. It has the same laser optics technology as all the other imagers in the CDI family. At its highest image resolution of 2540 ppi, it can image a full size plate in 9 minutes 30 seconds with effective screen rulings up to 175 lpi.

The CDI Spark 1712 is bundled with the FlexRip 1712 with EskoArtwork screens (circular, square round, elliptical), and the outstanding Grapholas front-end software package.

"The CDI Spark 1712 is perfect for the label printer who doesn't need a large machine, and prefer an imager with a small footprint that makes the most effective use of available space in a facility. If they decide to progress to direct to plate technology, if necessary they are still able to quickly and cost-effectively remake a quick piece of film," adds Buchweitz. "It provides these printers all of the EskoArtwork imaging expertise -and tremendous flexibility-in a small design perfect for narrow web."