Adhesive sleeves speed flexo press makeready process
Flexible-packaging printer/converter Clear Lam Packaging gains efficiencies with a Polymount Twinlock flexographic-platemounting option that also improves final print quality. (Photos)
By Contributing Editor Linda Casey -- Converting Magazine, 9/9/2009 8:19:00 PM
Founded in 1969 as a small regional plastics converter with limited product lines, Clear Lam Packaging, Inc., has grown into a vertically integrated packaging group with locations across the globe. Part of the company's success can be attributed to its investments in manufacturing capabilities and product-development services, such as those made to update the flexographic pressroom at the converter's headquarters in Elk Grove Village, IL.
First contact
Flexographic plates commonly are mounted onto printing cylinders or sleeves using adhesive tapes. This practice has propelled mounting-adhesive tapes (often referred to as stickyback) to become one of the top consumables of a flexo pressroom.
Stickyback may have served the industry well, but that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. It was this drive for improvement in both performance and sustainability that prompted Clear Lam's first contact with Polymount Intl. in 2005.
Polymount's Twinlock flexo-printing sleeves (left) use polymer-based adhesion that can be reactivated by cleaning the surface after the plate is demounted. This eliminates the need for the continuous expense of mounting tape in addition to the sustainability costs associated with landfilling spent tape.
"The price of a Twinlock is more or less double the [typical] sleeve price," says Polymount Intl. managing director Jan Willem Boers. "This means a printer has spent as much money on the Twinlock as they would on tape alone after only 25 press runs." He further remarks that return on investment (ROI) is especially quick when you consider that some converters are using the Twinlock sleeves up to 15 times per week. In less than two weeks, some flexographic printers can achieve complete ROI on a Twinlock purchase. Polymount reports that Twinlock sleeves often last at least three years or 300 press runs, thus potential multiplers for ROI can be very high.
After conducting a couple years of due diligence of Polymount's Twinlock adhesive sleeves, Clear Lam started testing the product. "They really picked up the project in 2007," Willem Boers recalls. "In 2008, Clear Lam started to transfer large portions of its cylinder sizes to Twinlock. I believe Clear Lam now has a thousand sleeves or so in stock."
The sleeves are used on three Flexotecnica gearless CI-flexo presses to print flexible pouches. Many of these pouches package snacks and nuts for clients such as Fisher Nuts (left), which is owned by John B. Sanfilippo & Son. (Members of the Sanfilippo family also have an interest in Clear Lam.) Since moving to Twinlock, the pressroom has decreased setup times by 17 percent.
Need for speed and quality
The adhesive sleeves are laser-measured to provide uniform concentricity throughout the imaging area, the supplier says. Print quality is further improved by the sleeve's open-cell foam technology, which helps eliminate bouncing on the press.
"If you drop a ball onto closed-cell foam, you will see significantly more bounce than if you do the same on open-cell foam," explains Jeff Schloesser, president of OEC Graphics, Inc., the exclusive distributor of Twinlock. "The reduction of this bounce dramatically reduces vibration, which can allow for faster press speeds."
In addition to improving print quality, the lower amount of vibration associated with the open-cell technology enables Clear Lam press operators to run jobs faster. Lenny Bastidas, director of press and extrusion at Clear Lam, reports that the pressroom has increased overall efficiencies 25 to 30 percent.
Handled with care
While Twinlock sleeves (left) generally simplify the platemounting process, they must be handled with a much higher level of care compared to traditional sleeves and tape. "If you put a knife or cut into a Twinlock sleeve, it's done," Bastidas remarks. "When you do the same action to tape, you destroy the piece of tape, but you can just strip it off and use a new piece."
Schloesser agrees: "It's a cultural change within a facility. Unless the facility is willing to look at things openly from the top, from ownership...to the managers...to the actual people who are using the product, it tends to be difficult."
At Clear Lam, Bastidas has implemented a very strict mounting and demounting policy. "Nobody in the building, except for a total of five gentlemen is allowed to touch the Twinlock sleeves."
Bastidas says this is a small price to pay for the increased efficiences and better, more uniform printability associated with thesleeves.
MORE INFO:
CONVERTER:
CLEAR LAM PACKAGING, INC., 847/439-8570, www.clearlam.com
SUPPLIERS:
POLYMOUNT INTL. BV, 31/33-299-6270, www.polymount-int.com
OEC GRAPHICS, INC., 800/388-7770, www.oecgraphics.com
FLEXOTECNICA SRL., 39/0-371-4431, www.cerutti.it
OEC Graphics expands partnership with WRE
09/17/2008
