São Paulo, Brazil – Esko will be demonstrating a wide range of solutions for the packaging supply chain when it participates in the Andina-Pack® 2015 International Packaging Exhibition (Pavilion 11-16, Stand 116), from 10-13 November, in Bogotá, Colombia. This is the most important packaging event in Colombia.

“The vast majority of all packaging created in the world touches Esko solutions, in one way or another. We are proud that brand owners and packaging suppliers, who will visit us during Andina-Pack, consider our products vital to their packaging development,” explains Leonardo Cruz, General Manager, Esko Latin America.

Esko will be sharing its stand with its reseller in Colombia, Graphisoft Integration. They offer solutions for flexographic printing, including production software, flexo CtP solutions with the Esko CDI and the complete line of Kongsberg digital cutting tables. Esko will also divide the stand with its reseller and long-standing partner, DuPont de Colombia S.A. The company's photopolymer flexo plates are imaged on CDIs.

“At Andina-Pack, we will again be working very closely with our resellers, DuPont and Grafisoft,” adds Alejandro Carvajal, Esko Sales Account Manager. “Esko has enjoyed a strong presence in the Andean region of South America and in Central America. In particular, Colombia is a very strategic market for Esko, and hosts most of the high quality flexo industries in Latin America. Traditionally, throughout the years the flexo industry in Colombia has proven to be very innovative, always incorporating workflow technology before many other facilities in Latin America. Our customers here are very successful in labels, flexible packaging and corrugated, with assistance from Grafisoft and DuPont.”

A wide array of prepress and design tools on display

At Andina-Pack, Esko will focus on major portions of its Suite 14.1 packaging production software, along with CDI flexo plate imagers with Full HD Flexo technology and Kongsberg cutting tables.

Automation Engine: The heart of prepress

Automation Engine serves as the heart of any prepress production operation. It is a modular workflow server with dynamic workflows that are easy to set up and operate. Automation Engine comes with extensive business system (MIS, ERP) integration capabilities and is highly scalable. It helps organize and centralize job data storage— graphical specifications like barcode, inks, RIP options. step & repeat data, colors to be used, etc.—as well as job metadata, thus increasing quality, reducing errors and driving cost out of the process.

Even today, packaging teams work with traditional methods of communication, such as phone, email and ftp. This leaves little room for innovation and typically adds time to the process. It’s also very hard to track the project’s status among the many outsourced suppliers. WebCenter connects all stakeholders in the process and brings clarity to this process with a centralized project management and communication system.

Esko CDIs and Full HD Flexo: Quality plates helping brands to rethink flexo

On display at Andina-Pack 2015 will be the CDI Spark 4260 flexo plate imager, offering the highest quality flexo plates, primarily for flexible packaging and folding carton applications, as well as corrugated. The CDI Spark 4260 is capable of imaging larger plates with impressive productivity—but at a cost-effective price.

Visitors can also learn about Esko HD Flexo and Esko Full HD Flexo plates, which many printers have used to move jobs from offset and gravure presses to flexo. Created by CDI imagers, Full HD Flexo plates deliver very consistent, high quality print with impactful solids and smoother highlights. Full HD Flexo also eliminates manual steps traditionally associated with flexo platemaking, including back and main exposures.

The most powerful sets of tools for packaging preproduction

Esko will also be demonstrating its packaging preproduction software. ArtPro is a full-featured packaging preproduction editor offering unique technologies and dedicated tools focused on major pre-press pain points, such as CAD and graphics alignments, trapping, distortion, screening, barcodes, and others. It can be integrated in any packaging workflow but with ArtiosCAD and Automation Engine, ArtPro turns Esko's packaging software into a complete and unbeatable packaging solution.

DeskPack is a collection of packaging prepress plugins. With them, Adobe® Illustrator® and Photoshop® become full-fledged packaging prepress applications. From importing structural design files (CAD data), over trapping production files, all the way up to creating repetitions of print-ready production files, DeskPack offers an exceptional packaging solution to get the job done.

Getting the color right

Esko Color Engine allows users to successfully manage brand color expectations, able to accurately predict what the brand colors will look like on the finished pack, even before the brand owner has signed off on production. Color Engine is a way to communicate color information to all stakeholders in the packaging supply chain.

Consistency between plate production and the proof is also vitally important. Pack Proof uses Esko Imaging Engine technology, so that the same imaging technology is used for CTP production in flexo and offset as well as proofing. It is the perfect solution for color accurate proofing of packaging designs.

Kongsberg table: Digital samplemaking at its best

The Kongsberg XN, easily the most versatile digital finishing device ever introduced, and perfect for samplemaking, will be cutting materials on the Esko booth. Whether producing vinyls, boards or wood; the Kongsberg XN brings the best quality for any job or application. It comes with industry standard print to cut registration, a camera system for vision cutting among many other features. The Kongsberg XN product family is available in seven different sizes from 66” x 50” to 87” x 258”.

The Digital Flexo Suite offers significant cost savings through the automation of flexo plate production, particularly when plate 'slugs' are being produced. It is a collection of Esko's plate making software that, when used with an Esko CDI flexo plate imager and the Kongsberg table, packaging printers, converters and trade shops can increase their productivity by reducing plate waste and eliminating human error.

3D design tools to get a better look at packaging

Studio is a unique set of tools for 3D packaging design that helps create exciting 3D visuals, ranging from PDF files with 3D content to movies, hero shots, or a virtual pack shot, for client presentations. With Studio Store Visualizer, brand owners can see their new designs on the shelf next to the competition; presenting a complete product launch in 3D, including retail-ready packaging, displays and other branded items.

With Studio Viewer users can look at 3D objects and spin them around with simple finger gestures. Anyone can view beautiful and realistic renderings of boxes, pouches, cans, bottles—including artwork and print finishing effects. 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.

Contributing to the conference program

Esko will be taking an active role in Andina-Pack's conference program. During the Flexo Seminar, Rory Marsoun, Esko Vice President of Business Development in the Americas, will offer a presentation, 'Automation is the Future of Platemaking'. In addition, Andrés Soto Moris, Esko Application Sales Manager, South America, will be offering a presentation titled, 'Automation of Prepress'. In it, he will explain advantages, examples and a demo of Esko Automation Engine. The demo will focus on the common tasks of a prepress workflow, taking examples for packaging and labels, and showing features that could be used by any trade shop.