Emerging Trends in Flexo

Technologies
17th April 2012

Kelvin Tan Boon Chai

ASEAN Sales Manager

Agenda
DuPont Overview
Printing Technology overview
Flexo Overview
Flat Top Dot Technology
FAST Round Technology
Flexography and Sustainability
Conclusions

DuPonts Mission, Vision and Core Values

Our Mission - Sustainable Growth:

The creation of shareholder and societal value while reducing the
environmental footprint along the value chains in which we operate.

Our Vision

To be the world most dynamic science company, creating

sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for
people everywhere.

Core Values The Foundation of DuPont

Safety and Health. Environmental Stewardship. Highest Ethical Behavior.
Respect for people.

DuPont 2011 Sales by Segment

$2.5B
$9.2B

Nutrition &
Health

Agriculture

Performance
Coatings

$3.2B

Electronics &
Communications

$6.8B

$38B*

$7.8B

Performance
Chemicals

$4.3B

Performance
Materials
$3.9B

$0.7B

Safety &
Protection

Industrial
Biosciences
* Total company sales exclude transfers.

Agenda
DuPont Overview
Printing Technology overview
Flexo Overview
Flat Top Dot Technology
FAST Round Technology
Flexography and Sustainability
Conclusions

Printing Technology Comparison

Flexo

Offset

Digital

Letterpress

O rifice
c

V+

Gravure

Screen

Printing Technology for Flexible Packaging (Wide Web)

Flexography

Gravure

Picture on plate

Text image

Picture on plate

Flexo Plate surface (relief)

Text image

Gravure cylinder surface

Cylinder Engraving Process with Base Shell Fabrication

6-8 Hours

Base Shell

54 Mins

Nickel Plating

123 Mins

Copper Plating

60 Mins

Polishing

120-150 Mins

Engraving

60 Mins

Chrome Plating

54 Mins

13.8-16.33HRS

Polishing
Total Production

Delivery Lead time

7- 14 days

Flexo Plate Making Solvent Process Overview

Pre-Press

2000 ECLF

CTP

Main Exposure

Digital Prepress
Color Separation

Plate Arrangement
Plate Ablation

2000 D

Light Finishing

2000 P

Total Production Time

2.5 3 hours
Delivery Lead time
1-2 Days
Plate Drying

Plate Processing

Printing Technology for Flexible Packaging (cont.)

Flexography

Solvent Process
Quality
Process Time
Environmental Impact
Substrates
Speed
Start up Waste

High
Fast 1-2 days
Low
Thin Extensible Film
FAST
Low

Gravure

Gravure
High
Slow 7-14 days
High
Reverse BOPP/PET
FAST (high End)
High

Agenda
DuPont Overview
Printing Technology overview
Flexo Overview
Flat Top Dot Technology
FAST Round Technology
Flexography and Sustainability
Conclusions

Why Flexo
Challenges facing CPGs:
Run lengths are getting shorter

Marketing demands for frequent graphics changes

Cost, Environmental pressures on Packaging

Upward trends in the costs of films and resins

Substrates-Getting Thinner & Extensible

JIT supplies to reduce inventories

SKU proliferation requires increasingly different labels.

What this means to converters?

Frequent design changes

New product design cycle times continue to shrink.

Costs need to come down.

Color match more critical globally.

Environmentally friendlier solutions.

Flexo For Fastest Turnaround time

Solvent Process
Film/Analog

Image to Plate

Total Production Time: 2.5 4.0 hours

Laser/Digital

In The Round Process

Laser/Digital

Flexo For Versatility

The biggest benefit of Flexo is its great
flexibility. It prints on virtually any
substrate, being it smooth or rough,
having absorbing or non-absorbing
properties, using a variety of inks,
water-based, solvent-based or UV.

It is best-suited for printing on a wide range of clear

and opaque substrates such as Paper,
Polyethylenes, Laminates, Labelstocks, Foils,
TetraPaks, etc. It is the only process capable of
consistently printing with perfect registration on
thin, extensible films right down to 25 micron PE.

Flexo for Costs

Overall economics better with Flexo due to

Marginal benefits in ink, plate, equipment

costs

Higher Press-speed Entry-level presses at

400 m/m, 600 m/m presses already in!

Reduced set-up and running waste web

length half that of Gravure.

Drier-length typically half that of gravure.

Typically gas-fired or electrically-heated for
PE. Lower power-consumption.

Lower VOCs due to completely enclosed

doctor-blade, closed loop inking system.
Minimal solvent loss due to evaporation.

Flexo for Environmental Lower VOC and Safer Solvents

What is in Packaging Ink?

Inks and food can and will interact

10%

10%

25%

Cooking in the pack

Maintaining taste after storage

55%
Pigment

Resin

Solvent

Additives

Avoid reaction with migration

Main problem
Odour and Taint

Retained solvents

Solvent extraction

Migration

Solvent Safety

Main Culprits
Solvents

Flexo for Environmental Lower VOC and Safer Solvents

Flexo Uses Friendlier solvents

Alcohol Based Vs Toluene/MEK Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) (Gravure)

Lower toxicity

Concern
Food package risk
Odour
Migration into water
Taste
Retained solvent limit
Work Place risk
Exposure
Skin absorption
Environmental
Emission
Ground water

Global standard
30mg/sqmetre
1000 ppm
10ppm detection
Food limits

Danger

If found at this level

Toluene MEK
Risk
Extreme High
Extreme High
Extreme High
2
2

Serious Health Impact

To the body of the

printer

Extreme
Extreme

High
High

Environmental Impact

From drying the print

From Waste

Extreme Medium
Extreme Medium

Ethanol
Low
Low
Low
30

Low
Low

Low
Low

Flexo Applications

Paper Bag
Flexible Packaging

Tag and Label

Print Liner
Corrugated
Folding Carton

Carrier Bag

Beverage Carton

MultiMulti-Wall Bag

Paper Cup

Envelope
OffOff-Set Coating

Agenda
DuPont Overview
Printing Technology overview
Flexo Overview
Flat Top Dot Technology
FAST Round Technology
Flexography and Sustainability
Conclusions

Conventional Analog vs Digital Dot vs Flat Top Dot

Digital Dot

Analog Dot

Film

Digital Flat Top Dot

NX Film

LED

Nitrogen

Membrane

Cover Sheet

Flexo require Pre-press work to optimise for print result

Summary of Flexo Screening

Original
Image

Full tonal
reproduction from
0.4%-99.6%

Digital Flexo

Tonal Break as Flexo cannot print details below 2%

Without pre-press
correction, the print
result will show
hard edge on tonal

Digital Flexo

Use Printable Minimum dot to fill in highlight area

With pre-press
correction, no hard
edge on tonal but
dirty highlight

Flat Top Dot

Flat top dot able to hold fine dot with wide shoulder

Flat Top Dot can be

stable on highlight
and robust for
printing
(In some Job)

Digital Flat Top Dot different approach by technology

Lamination

Nitrogen Gas

Membrane

Nitrogen

LED

Film Lamination

LED
Film
LED

Nitrogen Workflow Technical Details

Exposure in air vs. Nitrogen

Features formed in air

Features formed in
controlled DigiFlow
atmosphere

Nitrogen Workflow Technical Details

Solvent Process Digital Plate with Nitrogen
067 Plate Visual Comparison
Screened solid Plate exposed
in Nitrogen

Unscreened Solid

1.48

1.65
Solvent Process Plate
1.6

1.55

Solid Ink Density

Solid screening programs

resulted in much high solid
ink density when exposed
in Nitrogen workflow

1.5
No pattern

1.45

Pattern

1.4

1.35

1.3
Digiflow
Nitrogen

STD
Standard

Nitrogen Workflow Technical Details

High Resolution & Low Dot Gain Solvent Process Digital
67Plate 70L/cm(175Lpi) 1% dot
Plate
Surface

Print

Text to one point is sharp

and legible.

DigiFlow Product Summary

DuPont Cyrel DigiFlow is a digital workflow enhancement designed to expand

the capabilities of digital Cyrel and digital Cyrel FAST. The DigiFlow exposure
system enables 1:1 image reproduction when a screened solid is beneficial, and
with the flip of a switch returns to the standard digital exposure workflow whenever
that is the preferred solution.

Features & Benefits

- Optimizes performance of solid
screening programs such as Groovy or Microcell
- Improved solid ink densities
- Increased color gamut
- Easily integrated into existing workflows
- Compatible with all CDI Versions & HD Flexo

- No additional platemaking steps

- Maximum workflow flexibility
- Minimal consumable cost
- No environmental impact

High quality printing 200-300 lpi?

Can Flat Top Dot deliver

Improve Solid Ink Density?

Improve color gamut, more 4 color ?

In some cases yes with following conditions :

Higher Strength Ink

Finer Anilox roll

High Quality Substrates

Consistent Press performance

Perfect registration

Spot color replacement Software

Skill Press Operator

Agenda
DuPont Overview
Printing Technology overview
Flexo Overview
Flat Top Dot Technology
FAST Round Technology
Flexography and Sustainability
Conclusions

Thermal round:
The Next Generation Processing Technology

Thermal round
sleeve

4000 dpi
Cantilevered
CTP

Exposure
Unit

Thermal Processor

Light
Finisher

4 sleeves / hour
First high quality sleeve
after ~35 minutes

Finished
Sleeves

Thermal round Thermal Processing*

loose fit concept* one size fits all

10-15 minutes cycle time

movable arc

foam adapter
impression
photopolymer
sleeve
heated roll

non-woven

support roller

*) patent protected

Thermal round Easy Handling

Low weight
No solvents
Highest productivity

Sleeve loading

Loose-Fit

Print quality

Seamless Continuous designs (no plate gap)

Very good register (no manual mounting, no distortion)

Simpler Trapping (better register, no distortion)

Lower impression setting rel. to plates (lower thickness tolerances)

Lower dot gain (rel. to rubber forms)

No edge lifting (continuous form)

no cupping (no distortion)

Long print form life (reduced impression setting)

Very uniform ink transfer (rel. to hand-mounted plates)

Step Changes in Print Performance

Register

Contrast

Productivity /
Repeats

Details

CMYK /
heptachrome

The next step in flexo printing:

Agenda
DuPont Overview
Printing Technology overview
Flexo Overview
Flat Top Dot Technology
FAST Round Technology
Flexography and Sustainability
Conclusions

Hazards of Chrome
THE CHROMIUM CONNECTION
Chromium (III) occurs naturally in the environment.

Chromium (VI) is generally produced by industrial processes, and used in

such industries as pigment manufacturing, leather tanning, wood treatment
and chrome plating.

The primary use for chromium compounds containing chromium (VI) is in

the metal finishing industry for both decorative and functional purposes.

Chromium is often chosen as a surface finish because it possesses a low

coefficient of friction, high hardness, good corrosion resistance, high heat
resistance and anti-galling properties. Due to its toxicity and suspected
carcinogenicity, however, chromium is heavily regulated for the protection
of human health and of the environment.

These regulatory requirements, as well as the growing awareness among

metal platers regarding the health effects of chromium exposure, have led
to a search for acceptable alternatives to using chromium in the
electroplating industry.

Chromium compounds are considered highly toxic to humans.

Chromium (VI), or hexachrome, can cause ulcers of the skin, irritation of the nasal mucosa, and
irritation of the gastrointestinal tract, and adverse effects in the kidneys and liver.
Based on animal and human studies, chromium (VI) and its compounds should be considered
probable carcinogens in humans exposed by inhalation

Life Cycle Analysis shows Flexography as a Sustainable

Printing technology
0.40

9.0

0.35

8.0
7.0

0.30

6.0
0.25
5.0
0.20
4.0
0.15

3.0

0.10

2.0

0.05

1.0

0.00
Average Aligned
Flexo

Average Aligned
Gravure

Average
Average Aligned
Aligned
Flexo
Flexo

Non-Renewable Energy Use

(MJ per m2 of product)

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

(kg CO 2 per m2 of product)

Average 50% Savings with

Flexographic Printing

0.0
Average Aligned
Gravure

Based on DuPont Life Cycle Assessment Study

Flexography:

Higher viscosity inks reduce solvent use

Reduced energy & emissions for drying

Reduced substrate waste

Estimated Savings
Changing 1 Million m2 of Printed Substrate from
Gravure to Flexographic Printing*

 Non-renewable energy savings equivalent to

102,400 liters of gasoline

Heat Credit & Recycling

Combusted VOCs

 Greenhouse gas emissions savings

Plate or Cylinder

Ink & Solvent Production

equivalent to taking 69 average European

passenger cars off the road for one year

Cardboard Cores
Electricity

Substrate Film
Dryer & Oxidizer Fuel

Data Source: European Automobile Manufacturers Association Industry Report September, 2008

* Based on DuPont Life Cycle Assessment Data obtained from trade shops and converters from Europe and USA

Agenda
DuPont Overview
Printing Technology overview
Flexo Overview
Flat Top Dot Technology
FAST Round Technology
Flexography and Sustainability
Conclusions

Using Flexography for packaging

Provides high flexibility for changes in design

Assures speed to market launch

Offers high printing quality

Reduces environmental impact in green house gas emissions and
renewable energy consumption

Average 50% savings with Cyrel FAST Thermal System

Average 50% savings with Flexographic printing

DuPont Packaging Graphics has a large experience in flexographic market, investing for
more than 35 years in Flexography development, considered the technology of the
future, thanks to its versatility and low environmental footprint.

DuPont Packaging Graphics

Copyright 2011, DuPont Packaging Graphics Asia Pacific
Published and Recorded in 2011by: Packaging Graphics
Asia Pacific Marketing

Info: Cyrel-Marketing.AP@chn.dupont.com
Recorded in Asia All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be
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without the prior written permission of DuPont Packaging Graphic Asia Pacific
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