South African flexo trade shop, ACME Graphics has installed the Kodak Flexcel NX System in its new Cape Town site to enable consolidated colour management between digital and flexo printing.
Having now been operational for a few months, the technology has proved to be transformative for ACME, enabling the company to launch its new cloud-based colour management concept, ACME Digital Colour. Hauke Liefferink, managing director of ACME Graphics, said, ‘This is a completely new application that allows you to utilize your flexo press in the same way you would digital – there are no restrictions on the printable colour gamut. I believe this is a radical departure from the thinking behind extended colour gamut or printing with a fixed ink set. The fidelity of the Flexcel NX Solution is key here in delivering a flexo printed result that matches the digital press – we have not been able to achieve this with any other plates.’
With manufacturing sites in three cities, the company supplies plates for producing packaging and label products for the food supplies, pharmaceutical and sanitation industries. Mr Liefferink commented, ‘We opened up the Cape Town facility in April as part of our move towards becoming a national manufacturer and to enable brand owners and packaging converters to access our services countrywide. The addition of the Flexcel NX system has been invaluable for us and means we can now bring our new ideas to market and offer the biggest range of flexo plate choices in the South African marketplace.’
Innovation was a key consideration for ACME Graphics, and the product has met all the expectations of both the company and its customers. Other product benefits highlighted included the rapid set-up, enhanced colour fidelity and improved ink laydown. ‘We can now process conventional digital plates and flat-top dot plates with or without surface engineering,’ continued Mr Liefferink. ‘And additionally, we can process Flexcel NX plates with ink-saving DigiCap technology.’
