With the OFFSET CI8, Comexi has responded to challenges encountered in the flexible packaging sector – enhancing print quality, minimising time to market, reducing costs and protecting the environment.
Its cutting-edge tools and processes guarantee the quality levels demanded by today’s packaging market, and overcome traditional drawbacks of offset printing on non-absorbent and stretchable media.
Thanks to lightweight sleeves made from aluminium or PU composites, the continuous process typical of offset printing becomes repeatable and job changeover is streamlined. A changeover can be performed in a matter of minutes as sleeves can be prepared with plates and blanket cylinders in place.
Another striking innovation is its servo-drive technology. Servo motors on individual printing cylinders combined with CI technology allow rapid colour-to-colour registration and maintain registration accuracy throughout the run.
Helping to minimise time-to-market is faster prepress. Comexi points out that offset litho plates are more economical to produce than competing technologies used for flexible packaging (eg flexo and gravure), allowing a design change on every print run if required. Also shortening delivery times, settings can be saved and retrieved to process repeat jobs.
Print quality enhanced
Offset technology for printing on flexible materials also enhances print quality thanks to the Cl drum, which offers positional stability of the reel on the surface of the drum, ensuring perfect image positioning for each repeat, plus stable and predictable colour reproduction. Also enhancing quality, the press can reproduce screens from 2% to 98% and more than 80 lines/cm, making it compatible with the latest digital screen methods.
As regards sustainability and printer efficiency, a key feature is electron beam (EB) curing. In contrast to UV-cured inks, EB-cured inks contain no photoinitiators, making the process suitable for food-grade packaging. As EB curing also produces less heat than IR curing, deformation and tolerance problems are avoided, as are the costs of cooling systems required for UV curing.
Furthermore, EB inks for lithographic printing contain no solvents. This, combined with the dampening water and correct temperature in the roller train, allow viscosity to be reduced sufficiently to obtain the properties necessary for optimum ink transfer.
In essence, the Comexi OFFSET CI8 delivers a sustainable conversion process thanks to the elimination of solvents while its low energy consumption results in a reduced carbon footprint, in keeping with the company’s environmental protection philosophy.
Comexi Group
www.comexigroup.com
