5 minute read
XSYS introduces enhanced Woodpecker Nevis surface screening
How digital manufacturing can widen your range of applications
If you’re thinking of widening your range of applications and wondering how to go about it – Get excited! Moving into full digital print production and manufacturing means you can expand your portfolio and radically change your business.
Digitization and the latest innovative technologies can now give you the freedom and the guarantees to costeffectively and efficiently drive your business to new levels of capacity and capability. The range of possible applications is widening significantly and the options and choices are only limited by your imagination and ambition. The key is to find the right equipment supplier to make it happen!
We have all been part of the huge uptake in online ordering during the pandemic. The retail game has radically changed and everyone in the supply chain has to be ready and able. Differentiating and delivering products to satisfy the consumer’s ever changing tastes and preferences is a continuing challenge for everyone.
Market trends continue to evolve. Consumers are constantly online searching for ‘stand out’ high quality products and brand owners and designers are continually refreshing their brands. Equipment suppliers and printers and converters have to continually review and expand their capabilities and adopt the latest innovations and technologies to satisfy all the stakeholders and keep ahead of the competition.
If you are looking for innovation and the latest info on digital, Xeikon is your ‘go to’ digital guru. As a leading supplier of everything digital, having a chat with them is a good starting place for any company looking to the future. With over 40 years’ experience of digital innovation, Xeikon’s vision has always been to offer printers and converters a clear pathway to digital transformation.
One of the first things that Xeikon will tell you: ‘make sure you have an up to date and flexible, intelligent and innovative workflow’ that can drive and efficiently manage the zillions of small jobs that you will have to handle. Speed to market is essential so, apart from a clever and robust digital press with man/machine and machine/machine interfaces, you will also need powerful cloud connected software like Xeikon’s X-800 Digital Front End.
This has ‘ahead of the game’ capabilities for data management and security and full colour controls to drive multiple applications for the print and manufacturing of any kind of labels including high-end and security labels for track & trace against counterfeiting, interior décor applications such as wallpapers and textiles, also graphic arts applications such as books and bibles using the thinnest of papers, postcards with creative personalisation, calendars, posters, direct mail, point of sale – the list goes on and on….. Xeikon is a technology agnostic company. They can advise you on the best way forward on your digital pathway to expand your business. They can advise you on how best to expand your portfolio of applications - whether to go with dry toner technology or inkjet technology for example. It’s not always known but different applications require different technologies to get the best results. Having the right finishing equipment will also equip you with flexible, high-end embellishment capability.
Xeikon’s portfolio is bang up to date: - Cheetah dry toner technology with full accreditation for food safe applications - Panther inkjet technology for high gloss, durable applications - Sirius technology for graphic arts applications - Idera technology for corrugated packaging – all driven by Xeikon’s X-800 digital front end.
Xeikon has carefully structured and developed its portfolio with the very latest technologies to offer printers and converters every opportunity to create the widest range of added value applications - all from one supplier.
Expanding the ThermoFlexX Woodpecker family of high frequency surface screens, Nevis has been specifically developed for printing with white inks on film-based substrates.
XSYS is pleased to announce a new version of ThermoFlexX Woodpecker surface microstructure technology that enables higher imaging speeds of flat top dot flexographic plates for standard white inks. As a simple, open and effective screening solution, Woodpecker Nevis has the potential to save on costly white ink while providing more contrast and improved colors in flexible packaging printing. Already commercially available, it is the latest addition to the Woodpecker portfolio, which also includes the Sharp, Nano and Replay options for ThermoFlexX TFxX plate imagers.
“Woodpecker Nevis screening improves overall brilliance and makes it possible to save on white ink costs while also simplifying and speeding up the imaging process,” said Christophe Lievens, Global Sales Director XSYS Prepress. “In combination with the ThermoFlexX Multiplate option, which allows multiple resolutions to be imaged on the same plate, it delivers a more cost-effective and competitive solution that will help printers optimize OEE and reduce waste.”
The objective of the Woodpecker surface screening solution is to control the ink more accurately, as it is transferred from the anilox to the plate and onto the substrate. The result is a smoother, higher opacity ink laydown, sharper line work, and cleaner screens, without any of the common printing defects often found in flexo printing, such as pin holing, trail edge voids, and halo effects, at full press speed.
Woodpecker surface microstructures are applied at the imaging stage and is an adaptable solution that works with open RIPs. Furthermore, as the pattern is not embedded in the file, which normally increases its size greatly, much faster data exchange and computer processing times can be achieved. This significant reduction in workflow complexity also improves plate delivery times and ultimately speed to market for brand owners.
Developed to work seamlessly with the higher volume anilox rollers usually used for printing with standard white ink on film-based substrates in flexible packaging, Woodpecker Nevis consists of three surface patterns with different levels of coarseness for the broadest application reach.
While a higher volume anilox will increase quality and opacity, there is also the option to decrease the anilox volume which may consume less
expensive white ink without negatively impacting the opacity.
“Good coverage of white is essential in flexible packaging printing where it provides the foundation for strong colors and impactful graphics. However, white ink can represent as much as 50% of the total ink costs, so XSYS continues to develop new products that can help optimize the process, lower costs, and take out more waste.
With Woodpecker Nevis, we are bringing to market a flexible and sustainable solution that can be adapted to each customer’s individual needs,” concluded Stephan Reis, Global Marketing Director. “We now offer high frequency surface screens for process colors and white, thereby covering the whole spectrum.”
2022
