Fox Valley Technical College held a dedication Oct. 10 for its new wide-web flexo press at the school's D.J. Bordini Center in Appleton, WI. The 8-color Avantie gearless flexo press, supplied by Paper Converting Machine Co. (Green Bay, WI), is the culmination of the college's recent $1.85 million capital-improvement program. More than 100 flexo-printing industry professionals, including Converting, were on hand for the event.

FVTC president David L. Buettner thanked the program's 43 donors, making special mention of the Oshkosh, WI-based Bemis Co. Foundation's $150,000 donation, as well as PCMC's $500,000 discount on the Avanti's purchase price.

The new press, which features an 87-in. CI drum and 50 in. print width, has dual drop-splice unwinds and a turreted, flying-transfer rewind. Capable of running solvent- and water-based inks and coatings, the Avanti is rated at 1,000 fpm and uses PCMC's patented eXtremee dryer system.

Integral components include Nexen Group (Vadnais Heights, MN) brakes and controllers; Erhardt+Leimer (Spartanburg, SC) unwind web guides and an ELGuider rewind web guide; Bosch Rexroth (Hoffman Estates, IL) AC servo motors; a Sterling (Milwaukee) Sterlco CI-drum water heater; Harper Corp. of America (Charlotte, NC) Platinum™ anilox sleeves and banded rolls; an Enercon Industries Corp. (Menomonee Falls, WI) corona treater with Compak 2000 power supply; a Fife (Oklahoma City) Scan-a-Web viewer; and a BST Pro Mark (Elmhurst, IL) Genius Digital video web-inspection and defect-detection system. B&D Specialty Services Inc. (Denmark, WI) removed FVTC's old 6-color Carint CI-flexo press and installed the new Avanti system.

The installation of the state-of-the-art Avanti press makes Fox Valley a premier center for flexo-printing education, training and research, says Buettner. The school also has two Mark Andy (St. Louis) narrow-web flexo presses, a Grant Intl. Workhorse flexo/diecutter for corrugated printing, and a complete prepress computer department and DuPont Cyrelw (Wilmington, DE) photopolymer platemaking operation.