Italian repro company, Fotolito Veneta, has invested in a KODAK FLEXCEL NX Wide 5080 System from Miraclon, to be installed in Autumn 2020.

With an increasing need to produce bigger plates for Fotolito Veneta’s customers, the 5080 system offers large format production, efficient plate layouts, and improved imaging speed.

Andrea Storace, packaging sales manager at Fotolito Veneta, said, ‘The FLEXCEL NX System’s flat-top dot structure solves a problem inherent with traditional digital flexo platemaking technology, where oxygen inhibition during UV exposure results in bullet-shaped dots that are prone to surface wear and result in unpredictable inking and printing. The FLEXCEL NX System’s technology eliminates all oxygen during UV exposure to produce full amplitude, flat-top dots with sturdy bases and strong shoulders across the entire tonal range. The result is a printing form that is consistent, repeatable and resistant to changes in impression and wear from substrate or cleaning.’

Food packaging in particular accounts for 60% of the company’s business and the company includes a number of large brands among its clients, including Bofrost, Dal Colle and Le Mantovanelle.

Customer demands surrounding turnaround times have evolved, with next day delivery becoming a common expectation. ‘No matter how many orders we get and how many thousands of metres we print, the quality of the final product needs to remain consistently the same throughout,’ explained Mr Storace. As such, the company is in the process of launching a bigger production line by the end of the year. ‘This will be a major future-proofing exercise,’ he continued. ‘If we want to be faster, we need to make the right investment. Our goal is to produce double the plates that we produce now, as well as to be able to run bigger plates at higher speeds.’

Initially specialising in the provision of high-quality, offset pre-press services to the book and magazine publishing industry, Mr Storace foresaw the growth opportunity packaging would offer, embraced flexo technology and refocused the company’s attention on offering the full range of packaging pre-press services. In 2010, flexo only represented 30% of its turnover – today it’s 100%.