When flexo instructor Steve Utschig looks out at the press room at Fox Valley Technical College's D.J. Bordini Ctr. (Appleton, Wis.), he doesn't see the somewhat outdated CI-flexo press that is currently there. Instead, he sees the new PCMC Avanti gearless press that is due to arrive in July of this year.

"The addition of this new press will make us far and away the finest wide-web printing training facility in the nation," says Utschig, who is also a contributing technical editor to Converting. "We already have two modern narrow-web presses, and a modern flexo/diecutter for corrugated. But our wide-web press was outdated, and it just couldn't offer the type of training the industry is going for. The industry wants its people trained on a press with automatic deck positioning; they want their people comfortable with PLC control. If we want to attract industrial training prospects, we have to be up-to-date."

Flexography has advanced rapidly in the past 10 years. With that fact, managers of flexo-training programs here in the Midwest and across the country face the challenge of providing presses and other equipment that is state-of-the-art, so that training is relevant to the market these full- or part-time trainees will enter when the program is complete.

With modern flexo presses costing upwards of $1 million a piece, programs like Fox Valley Technical are forced to play a high-stakes donation game. Fox Valley announced in September its plans to purchase the Avanti press, with the college pledging $500,000 for the press purchase and the rest to come from industry and private donations. Utschig estimates that the fund drive is well short of its goal, but is still waiting to hear from some important prospective industry donors.

"DuPont has pledged to donate a new solventless platemaker," he says. "And we're hoping to get two more FlexSys press simulators into the program from FTA for industry training, which will make us truly up-to-date."

In an announcement that was overshadowed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, pressmaker Heidelberg strengthened its partnership with the Rochester Instititute of Technology's Printing Technology program through an agreement to install its "Sunday 2000" commercial web press on RIT's campus. The press produces high-quality publications such as car brochures, calendars, and magazines. Installation of the press is to be completed next fall. It will join a host of other presses and advanced prepress equipment within RIT's Printing Applications Laboratory (PAL)—giving RIT the technological edge in commercial-print training using sheetfed, offset technology, at the very least.

RIT is also hoping to enter the training market for digital, variable-printing capabilities, with other recent acquisitions including:

• Indigo's TurboStream, WebStream and the new UltraStream digital color presses,
• Xeikon 32D and 50D digital color presses, and
• Xerox Docutech 135 and 6180 and DocuColor 40 and 2060.

RIT—one of only two Xeikon qualification sites in the world—is also helping industry suppliers develop substrates that are compatible with Xeikon digital engines, as well as evaluation procedures for sheetfed and rollfed substrates on Indigo's Digital Offset Colort presses.

The Harper National Flexographic Ctr. at Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte, N.C., made news recently when it installed an anilox-roll cleaning system developed for the school by HarperScientific, supplier division of Harper Corp. of America. Called the Cleaning Stationt, the system allows instructors to teach anilox-roll preventative maintenance to students, while caring for the inventory of the Center's narrow-web anilox rolls. The station involves four steps. An anilox is placed into position and then easily moved from station to station to be scrubbed, rinsed, inspected and dried. The system lets instructors explain the importance of anilox maintenance, and the display includes microphotographs of both clean and dirty rolls.

According to Jerry Howell, flexo instructor at the Center, "We hope to improve flexo printing by educating newcomers to the industry on the importance of proper anilox cleaning."

For the suppliers who provide new equipment at cost or substantial discounts, the benefits range from tax deductions, to goodwill and the publicity generated by cooperating with flexo-training programs. But the big winners are the students themselves.

"Our students need exposure to the types of electronic tolls and equipment they will work with in the industry," comments Karen Proctor, chairman of RIT's Packaging Sciences Division. A software donation made to RIT by Barco Graphics over a year ago proves that presses and rolls aren't the only things suppliers are donating to flexo schools. "The donation of the Artios CAD system presented a perfect opportunity to infuse some new technology into the courseload." She adds that RIT's placement program for graduates has been "extremely successful."

While these packaging and converting training programs may feel that they compete for students, their proliferation over the past 10 years—and the fact that they're successful and growing—clearly shows that there's room for them all. It also gives a hint as to how much in demand well-trained flexographers will be as more converters and packagers incorporate flexography into the printing mix.

For a comprehensive list of flexo-print training programs, see "What you need to move ahead," (Sept. 01, p. 62-64), our monthly Datebook industry calendar (p. 26) or online at www.convertingmagazine.com