We’re eagerly awaiting the annual Flexographic Technical Association Fall Conference, Oct. 9-11 in St. Louis. In an earlier post, we detailed the schedule our reps will follow as hundreds of flexo printing professionals come together to network and further their expertise with educational sessions.

The breakout educational sessions Tuesday, Oct. 10 will be the most pertinent for our services.

Flexographic Printing Processes to be Discussed

As a custom manufacturer of flexo print sleeves, cylinders, and plates, the processes and physics behind helping clients create high-quality, repeatable prints are vital. Printers can’t afford missing the mark, even by thousandths of an inch. Substandard color quality and low resolution also equal failure.

Here’s that day’s breakdown:

Calibrating the Processes

Combining digital with flexo printing requires calibration and many factors to consider. Using the cover of October’s FLEXO as an example, the session will review requirements and real-world scenarios encountered while preparing a print job.

Speakers: Mark Samworth, Esko; Jason Cagle, MacDermid Graphics Solutions; Nat Davis, Mark Andy, Inc.

Fingerprinting the Processes

Fingerprinting is the next in the printing process. This part enhances your flexographic workflow in production. Utilizing G7 methodology, FTA Flexo Hall of Fame member Steve Smiley will explain how to create curve files and then use the workflow to achieve repeatable quality.

Speaker: Steve Smiley, SmileyColor & Associates

Characterizing the Processes

This session will detail how the cover project utilized color management practices through the characterization of inks and ink application.

Speaker: Catherine Haynes, All Printing Resources, Inc.

Controlling the Processes for Production

This session will address the common process control techniques for successful printing.

Speaker: PJ Fronczkiewicz, Flint Group

Analyzing the Results

The final stage of a hybrid printing project is analyzing the end product. This also coincides with supporting optimizing, fingerprinting, and characterization press sheets.

Speaker: Mark Samworth, Esko

Other Great Topics at the FTA Fall Conference

While Tuesday’s sessions are our top picks for FTA 2017, we also recommend attending sessions the other days. Here’s the full agenda. No matter where you fit in the flexo printing industry, you can delve into:

• Flexographic innovation
• Creating customer confidence
• Specifying hue angles to establish CMYK starting points
• And more

Visit us at booth 217.