Successful Flexo Challenges Conference, vol. 4 

At the end of April SOMA held fourth annual conference at the SOMA Globe, Training and Technology Centre. More than 100 attendees from all around the world participated – United Kingdom, USA, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Pakistan, Israel, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The main attention was on trends and interesting case studies for brand owners and smart solutions for printers.

In the spotlight were speakers who presented the latest innovations and solutions in various flexographic printing technologies. Petr Blasko of SOMA focused on the increased efficiency resulting from print stability. Consistent anilox ink transfer was presented by Bas van der Poel of Apex. Doug Weiss of Kodak also concentrated his presentation on ink transfer. Marvaco’s Kai Lankinen introduced the new era of packaging printing – expanded gamut printing. Afterwards, business impact and benefits of this phenomenon were analysed by Dan Pulling of Esko. Flint's Dr. Joelle Bédat and Roland Geiselhart spoke about a seamless package for Flexo. The presentations concluded with Dr. Christopher Kauczor of BST and his presentation on in-line spectral colour measurement in flexo printing.

The theoretical insights were closely connected to the print demonstration of the Soma Flex Optima, Soma Flex Optima² and ARUN. During the Optima² demo the main advantages of Advanced Bounce Control system were presented – absolutely stable dot and bounce less printing of difficult (vibration-generating design) jobs at full speed. The second job by Optima² was set using ARUN - Zero Meter set up waste system. Both designs were printed by solvent-based FlexiLam laminating ink. The small Optima ran a water based print on paper, using seven colour ink with Expanded Gamut technology and a final lacquer coating. The ink used was PremoNova. „We were pleased to show the best of what flexo technology is able to offer in terms of an ink, anilox, plate and press. Flexo means many substrates and different ink formulations. During the conference we printed on film and paper; with solvent as well as water based ink. Our main contribution, though, as press manufacturer is the absolutely stable dot due to our Advanced Bounce Control and of course the ARUN set up system for short runs,“ adds Petr Blasko, Marketing Director of SOMA.

For more information, please, contact Stepanka Pospisilova at pospisilova@soma.cz or go on SOMA web site www.soma-eng.com/news.