Wow!Packaging by Miraclon customers at drupa24

The Miraclon stand at drupa was busy with global visitors buying up the company’s retrofit Shine LED lamp kits like hotcakes. But what made the stand exceptional was the display of its customer’s flexo output shown as printed laminates and converted pouches. Fittingly, the exemplary packaging from Sri Lanka was for tea, and that from Colombia, for coffee.

The ALFT pouch for Avikah Premium Ceylon Tea, which managing director Chathura Jayatissa brought with him to drupa24, is one of several tea brands the company supplies with packaging materials. Recalling our story about ALFT’s breakthrough as the first converter to commercially master ECG printing on a CI flexo press in the subcontinent, Jayatissa remained discreet about the company’s growth plans and next steps.

In printing the Avikah pouch with metallic effects for the line illustration and text, the registration has to be accurate because the prepress setup includes zero trapping with no overlap at the edges. This ALFT can confidently achieve because of its registration accuracy on the W&H Miraflex press with Zecher aniloxes. The 7-color ECG ink set from DIC comprises CYMKOGV. Thus, when a metalized film is laminated on the inside to provide the barrier, the metallic effect that shows through is a perfect fit. A natural metallic spot effect is created without the use of any inks.

ALFT uses NX plates with Pureflexo for the fixed color set giving a high level of control and good transfer of ink to achieve the desired densities with the lowest ink film weight. In addition, the smooth solid blue ground of the Avikah tea pouch is achieved using the fixed ECG set with white fine text reverse printed using 2×2 hybrid screening at 133 LPI. The original design is color-separated using GMG software for the digital transforms from CYMK and spot colors to the ECG fixed color set.

Since the spot colors have been eliminated and the metallic effects come from the metalized film laminated on the inside, the ECG approach allows ALFT to run several packs simultaneously side by side in the same run. Smaller runs bring great efficiency and productivity to the process.

The Cafeismo coffee pouch from Flex Pack Colombia

In the Cafeismo pouch from Flex Pack in Colombia, the ink film weight is reduced by 30% without compromising density or visual halftone effects. In this example, the entire decoration of the pouch including spot colors and the metallic effect is replaced by CMYK plus white – and like much of its work, the company uses just 5 or 6 stations on its Uteco Onyx XS8 CI flexo press.

Zero trapping enables Flex Pak to keep precisely defined windows open for the metallic film to be laminated from the inside and show through. Press optimization and precise ink control using the NX plates bring the ink usage down 1.57 grams per square meter from the generally used 2.5 grams per square meter. In addition, the Cafeismo pouch has a 0.8-point security microtext for brand protection.