• Fresh pasta gets "corny" packaging: Italian pasta maker Biorigin S.p.A. now packages its fresh pasta specialties in containers made from NatureWorks™ PLA, a packaging material 100% derived from corn. Supplied by Minnetonka, MN-based Cargill Dow LLC, NatureWorks polylactide resin is derived from plant starches. The fresh pasta is first packed in a clear, rigid tray made of NatureWorks PLA, and then heat-sealed with a film overlay, also produced with the corn-based material. Biorigin worked with Italian packaging manufacturers Amprica S.p.A. and Treofan to develop the packaging concept. Treofan is reportedly Europe's largest converter of OPP films.
• Sliding into a deal: Schaumburg, IL-based material supplier Pliant Corp. reaches an agreement granting Presto Product Co., Appleton, WI, the right to use Pliant's patented Slider reclosable technology. The accord also gives Presto the right to extend its rights to its distributors, dealers and packaging end-users.
• Combatting competition: Superior Labels Ltd. of Boston, England, purchases its second Combat 370 flexo press from Italian manufacturer GIDUE S.p.A. The new press replaces an older narrow-web flexo system due to significant increases in productivity and joins the converter's first 8-color Combat. The second Combat 370, a 6-color version with full UV-curing capability, will be used primarily for producing food, beverage and industrial labels.
• All digital all the time: All Labels Ltd. reportedly installs the UK's first digital-converter system at its plant in Abingdon, England. The GRE Digital Converter, manufactured jointly by GRE Engineering and VIPColor Technologies, is designed around the VIPColor four-color VP2020 using HP inkjet technology and includes lamination capability, a Digicut diecutter using a digital-stylus module, and matrix and product-roll rewinding to provide a complete tag/label printing and converting system.
• Applied Films Corp. re-ceived an order for its 500th vacuum roll coater—a TopMet 2250 metallizer, in July. The machine has been sold to Schoeller & Hoesch GmbH, a renowned German paper mill, to metallize precoated paper. Schoeller & Hoesch has been metallizing for 24 years, and this new coater will be the converter's third system.

All signs point toward a future of flexography for package printing, and the future of flexo is digital. That was the conclusion of presentations by Wilmington, DE-based DuPont Imaging Technologies' "Perfect Packaging meets Perfect Workflow" seminars last month. More than 100 prepress tradeshop and flexo-print professionals attended the dual symposia Sept. 16 in Appleton, WI, and Sept. 18 in Itasca, IL.

Knowing what the end-user buyers of packaging (the consumer product companies) value most from their suppliers shows how flexo answers these demands, says Kenneth W. Lowden, marketing and industry relations mgr. Among the top 10 choices DuPont discovered during a recent customer summit: CPCs value a predictable and consistent outcome of printing, the ability to cut turnaround time and a drive to lower costs.

Flexographic printing, and the latest developments in digital flexo, respond to these traits buyers value in their packaging and the converters who print it, Lowden says. Digital flexo's process control allows more sophisticated measurement to arrive at a more consistent finished print, and rapid CTP-flexo generation and the elimination of analog films speeds turnaround and trims costs.

A highlight of the seminars was a live video feed from DuPont Imaging Technologies' lab in Wilmington. A sample package's graphic design was finalized for each audience onsite in Appleton and Itasca, and then e-mailed to Wilmington. DuPont Cyrel® digital-flexo plates were imaged on a CDI Compact in the lab and processed via a Cyrel FAST thermal system—all in less than an hour.