Significantly improved OEE and reduced waste compared to conventional plates

Tokyo, Japan, & Brussels, Belgium – Asahi Photoproducts, a pioneer in flexographic photopolymer plate development has proved again its leading market position with a raft of gold, silver and bronze prizes at the UK´s EFIA Awards 2017. Categories included Print on Film, Print on Paper and Print on Corrugated proving that Asahi plate technology is the perfect choice across multiple substrates. 

Award winning Asahi customers included CJSC Uniflex winning a Gold Award for Flexo Print on Film, Ultimate Packaging for Flexo Print on Paper and DS Smith Packaging Deutschland for Flexo Print on Corrugated. 

David Galton, Sales director of Asahi Photoproducts Europe expressed the company’s pleasure, “We are delighted with these prestigious EFIA Awards. Asahi plate technology continues to perform to the highest standards of quality and efficiency. We know from our customers’ feedback that Asahi Plates are the product of choice for companies requiring the ultimate in product control.”

Asahi's flexographic plate range with unique Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer enables kiss touch printing pressure with soft tonal shades fading out to zero. This ensures consistent repeatability of printing quality during the production run as well as longer plate life. The key advantages of these plates are enhanced ink transfer and reduced ink filling at the mid-tone area with reduced dot gain resulting in fewer cleaning intervals and press stop downtimes. A big plus is the reduction in waste for improved overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Asahi‘s Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer plates are compatible with many of the recent high definition screening and microcell patterning technologies.

Additionally Asahi plates offer precise registration taking quality levels to an all-time high to meet brand owner demand and ensuring a competitive edge for flexographic printers. Galton adds, “The printing efficiency of the Pinning Technology for Clean Transfer during testing demonstrated a 26% OEE improvement over conventional solvent plates. The significant contributing factors were that the Pinning Technology plate completed the run length 33 minutes faster than the conventional plate. The Pinning plate required less press stops for cleaning, saving 39 minutes. The Asahi plate produced 575 linear meters less waste material. And the Pinning plate produced higher print quality (lower dot gain) with more print contrast. Asahi is proud of these results and the benefits they signify for our customers.”