Flat Top Dots and HD

[Bill W]

Greetings,

Just returned from FTA Forum. Much talk about flat top dots. Any users willing to share their experiences with this technology in any kind of flexo printing environment, be it narrow web paper, wide web film, corrugated, or?

Interested in successes as well as challenges with the different technologies that can make a flat top dot.

No "sales" talk please. Interested in comments from production users.

-Bill-

 

[Slammer]

I find the use of oxygen inhibitors somewhat clumbersome, the Flint intense UV system works very well but at 150. grand € OMFG expensive, the results were pretty good though.
The Kodak also gave very good results but as only Kodak materials can be used I don't think it will be a runner.
Have not tried the LUX system yet but I expect to have a few pro's and big con's

 

[KevinC@EFI]

Sorry to post to an old thread, but this info might help.

"Flat Top Dots" aren't anything new or surprising. You basically had flat top dots with analog film and plates, because when the UV exposure happened the film was acting as an oxygen barrier. Flat top dots were something that you had to give up when going to a laser-ablative mask CTP system (LAMS). Newer systems like the Kodak NX and the high-cost options on other systems really are attempting to get you back to what you already had with analog.

The big benefit of flat top dots is they're a LOT more forgiving on press - they don't grow or shrink as the impression strength changes. They're also much better able to hold fine detail because the dots have a stronger shoulder. In "ideal" printing conditions you probably won't see much difference - but who runs in ideal conditions all the time?

I have a ton of other info if you need it. I used to work for Kodak, and now manage the NA market for DigiFlex - so I'm more than glad to share my knowledge and help out (without the high-pressure sales, if you're just looking for info!).

Kevin.

 

[Kune]

What about the dot gain?

IMHO there is not any big advance working using Flat Top Dots. All the flat top dots technologies I tested including Kodak have a high dot gain in highlights especially in Wide Web,(ie:reverse printing OPP substrate). The best result was always round dots technologies with much less dot gain.