Total Work Flow Control in Plate Mounting is Indispensable
Eurograv Limited, Global distributors for the Camis range of flexographic plate mounting machines report that the flexographic industry is finally noting that Total Work Flow Control in the flexographic plate mounting process to be indispensable.
Controlling not only registration but also the TIR of the sleeves by repeatable applications of both the tape and the plate is providing clients with significant savings on press with rapid return on investments, with in some cases less than 6 months.
A large percentage of Camis plate mounting machines sold during and after Drupa have been specified with the Taper-Slide tape application system. At Drupa Camis exhibited an Irisleeve 1401 with Taper Slide that mounted 2 bands of tape and a single 1100m wide plate on to 1200mm wide sleeve in less than 3 ½ minutes per colour. Speed is one advantage of the Total Work Flow Control system afforded by the Camis unit but the main benefit is that every single sleeve is mounted to exactly the same standard as the preceding sleeves. This has the advantage that the Central Impression flexographic press pre-setting systems can be utilised to the maximum thus saving wasted meterage on press instead of having to set not only registration but also pressures on each individual colour.
The Taper Slide is available in widths from 650mm upwards to 1450mm, or as wide as the plate mounting tape can be produced. “We have supplied many machines with full width tape applicators,” reports Mike Attard, Export Sales Director of Eurograv “clients now procure the tape in various widths so that they match the tape width to the print width.” Since Drupa Eurograv report that 2 1900mm wide Camis machines with 1000mm tape applicators have been shipped to the United States, whilst three Camis Irisleeve machines with full width Taper-Slides have been shipped to Russia, whilst the UK has received 2 similar units.
Applying the plate on the Camis machines no longer requires the operator to retain the silicon liner on the tape or to use a small hand held roller. A motorised Plate mounting table and specially designed plate application roller also ensures that each plate is applied to the same standard for each sleeve. “Apart from on press savings, our clients are reporting increases in print quality,” Adds Attard. “We sold our first complete system of this type over 10 years ago, delivering over 100 complete Total Work Flow Control Systems, printers are realising that it’s no longer acceptable to have manual applications in the plate mounting process whilst every other single step in the whole work flow chain is either controller electronically or mechanically.”
Camis Plate mounting machines can be tailored to each client’s requirements with either 2, 4 or 6 cameras, as well as motorised Cameras and Camis’s new MMRM system. The MMRM acronym stands for Mounting without Microdots or Register Marks and this system provides data capture so that each plate can be photographed and stored for subsequent jobs or QA checks.