Bart Wright Speaking at the Info Flex 2019 Forum: Providing a Printer’s Perspective on New High Definition Print Technology
Bart Wright, Director of North America Graphics, recently spoke at the FTA Info Flex 2019 Forum held in New Orleans, LA. The Info Forum provides printers, converters and flexographic industry professionals the opportunity to network and learn new industry technologies.
Bart was invited to speak on a panel of representatives from Kodak, Hamillroad and Esko during the session, “A Screening of Screening: Investigation into Prepress and Plate Advances. He represented the InterFlex Group as the volunteer printer to print test runs to highlight the new high definition printing technology. Bart gave a printer’s perspective of what was learned from printing this new technology from three different Prepress and Plate providers. From this experience, he gave great insight on the film, ink, machine and operators during the print process. The test runs were printed at InterFlex’s Merrill, Wisconsin facility.
When asked why did InterFlex volunteer? Wright concluded, “We wanted to learn, we fit the bill. We were already qualified with Bellissima, we run a lot of Kodak plates using Project Blue and we run some items with Crystal screening. But the main reason we volunteered is we are the Print Geeks, that’s who we are.”
For the test runs, InterFlex brought each vendor in on 3 different days, at 8am with the same press, operator, 4 color process and inks. So, how did it print? What did it look like?
High Definition Printer’s Perspective:
- All Impressions pulled up quickly without any real issues.
- No technology showed any signs of trashing up or not wanting to print clean.
- Highlights and shadows both look great.
- The min dots looked really nice.
- Great solid ink density.
- All transferred to the substrate very well.
- All prints looked better than the proof.
In conclusion, when asked who would be the champion between the three different plate providers and test runs, Wright stated, “Flexo for the win. This technology we are doing now is so exciting.” He echoed the statement from Steve Smiley, from SmileyColor & Associates LLC, “It is the Best Technology on the Planet.” For more information on high definition printing, contact Bart Wright at bwright@www.interflexgroup.com. As a print house and a flexographic printer, the InterFlex Group currently uses all of these technologies commercially with amazing results.
