In November, the golden leaves of the Gingko trees pave the avenue to the People Building of Xi’an, the ancient Chinese capital, to welcome the visitors. In the conference room on the third floor of the People Building, all 600 seats are occupied, and even more attendees were standing to listen to the forum „Intelligent and Efficient – Green and Environmental-friendly“, hosted by Shaanxi Beiren Printing Machinery Co., Ltd.

However, the visitors have not forgotten the thick fog from a few days before. To prevent this environmental dilemma, China has now adopted strict laws, which will also have consequences for the printing industry – especially the huge volume of gravure printing, which is in the spotlight. Thus, one of the objectives of the Xi’an forum was to explain the VOC emission control policy. Additionally, a new joint project of Shaanxi Beiren Printing Machinery Co., Ltd., Flint Group Flexographic Products, Shanghai Auclean Printing Machine Co., Ltd., Sinwa Printech (International) Ltd. and other partners was presented at the event. With their approach to high definition flexo printing, the project partners managed an important step towards an environmentally friendly printing method for China.

Following the event, the participants could inspect Shaanxi Beiren Printing Machinery’s FCI400 wide format satellite flexo printing press and experience a 150 lpi high definition print run with a printing speed of 400 m/min. This state-of-the-art printing press is built with an electronic axis control system, a full servo controlled impression setting and several other new features. It is also equipped with a high performance Auclean 1.000 lpi anilox roller. The output is brilliant and comparable with any gravure printed foil.  

The job was printed using a nyloflex® ACE Digital flexographic printing plate from Flint Group. Additionally, the nyloflex® NExT exposure technology was used to reproduce flat top dots and surface screening. This printing plate is particularly suitable for foil printing and shows an extreme durability and a long plate run life, especially in combination with the nyloflex® NExT technology. A solvent based flexo ink of Flint Group’s Arrowfilm 1000 series was selected for this printing job. High colour density and high gloss can be achieved with this printing ink – thus the characteristics of a good dot reproduction could be fully demonstrated. Sinwa Printech (International) Ltd. provided the colour separation, and together with Flint Group experts, they were key factors to the success of the print trial.

“We see good opportunities for the future“, says QiHong-Magenta Zheng, General Manager Flint Group Flexographic Products in China. “Flexo printing stands for high efficiency and sustainable development. We believe that environmentally friendly, high definition flexo printing will have enormous business opportunities through such cooperation“.