The Robinette Company hopes to eliminate solvent-based platemaking from its plant in Bristol, Tennessee by becoming the first company in North America to use the next generation of Asahi AWP-DEW water-washable plates.

The company, which specialises in providing sustainable packaging for the food, beverage, nutraceutical, construction, textile and health care markets, has been using Asahi AWP-DEF water-washable plates for several years, and is in the process of upgrading to AWP-DEW plates for even more productivity improvements.

‘We have reduced our plate-making process from three hours to one hour for the first plate out, with subsequent plates delivered in 20 minutes,’ said Gene Martin, plant manager at the Tennessee facility. ‘This has given us a 33% increase in capacity in the plate room. Now, with the AWP-DEW plates, the first plate out time will be 20 minutes, with subsequent plates delivered faster than that.’

Clean Transfer Technology plates from Asahi Photoproducts have been specifically engineered to transfer all remaining ink to the printed substrate. This is due to the plate’s lower surface energy. These plates do not need to be cleaned as often as conventional digital solvent plates. Reduction of plate cleaning stops creates a significant productivity improvement as well. The change has allowed the Robinette Company to elimate all hazardous chemicals and also improve its overall equipment effectiveness by almost a third. 

‘Our first time out for a plate with the AWP-DEW plates is reduced from an hour to 20 minutes, with subsequent plates produced about every 15 minutes,’ Mr Martin said. ‘Along with this, we were also the first in the country to have Asahi’s AWP 4260 inline plate processor, which reduces water consumption by re-using the wash water and reduces the amount of operator intervention required in the plate-making process. We use the AWP 4260 for production, but we also have a smaller offline Asahi system we use in case we have a damaged plate on press and we are down. We can generate a new plate in a very short time with this system.’