Promoting young talent in the printing industry is a long-held tradition within Flint Group. Apprenticeships are offered at many sites, with partnerships carefully cultivated at many schools and universities worldwide where we can offer trainees and students guidance with their bachelor or master thesis. One example of this is the close cooperation we have with the Stuttgart Media University, where diverse joint projects are undertaken. For almost 60 years Flint Group has presented the K+E Prize to promote excellence in the field - with the biannual award being presented to the best master thesis in printing technology. In addition to this Flint Group also enjoys excellent relationships with several universities and institutes in China, such as the Technical University in Xi’an or the Beijing Institute of Graphic, where scholarships and prizes are awarded and practical training programmes in the company are offered. 

At the beginning of August 2013, three professors from these Chinese partners visited Flint Group in Stuttgart (Germany). Professor Xu Wencai, Vice President of the Beijing Insitute of Graphic, Professor Cao Congjun, Deputy Dean of the Technical University Xi’an and Ms. Hengzhen Diao from the Stuttgart Media University used the opportunity to learn more about the company’s product portfolio and the latest technologies used to produce flexo printing forms.

“Of particular interest were discussions on the influences of the plate processing and their effects on the printing quality as well as the attractive field of the flexo printing market and technologies in China”, says Dr Uwe Stebani, Vice President Technology Flint Group Flexographic Products. He adds: “With different print samples showing impressively the advantage of high resolution surface textures implemented on the plate relief, we could demonstrate the improvement of the image quality in flexo printing, which can be achieved with the nyloflex^® NExT exposure technology”. The high energy exposure with the UVA LED’s of the nyloflex^® NExT Exposure enables a detailed reproduction of high-resolution textures due to oxygen inhibition. The imaging of fine surface textures at least enhance the printing quality in flexo printing by higher ink density in solids and smooth ink lay down of ink trapping. The printing image appears more brilliant and rich in contrast. 

During live demos of the nyloflex^® NExT and nyloflex^® ITR technologies the visitors could observe the processing of flat plate and seamless endless form processing for flexo printing. Finally, the guests gained an insight into Flint Group’s technology centre, where sheetfed, letterpress as well as flexo inks and plates are tested and evaluated. The visitors were particularly impressed by the further development to a standardised production of flexo printing forms and the possibilities with automated plate processing.