HD Flexo blues

[Slammer]

Grrr! Is it just me thinking that Esko's HD Flexo is more of a marketing hype to make life more difficult for the rest of us!
I don't see the 'WOW!' gain over standard production methods that validates the extra cost and effort for HD.
However I do realize that HD Flexo is de facto the bar that all the others (CTP builders and Software smithies) must not only reach but jump clean over.
But at the same time can Jane and John Doe see the difference and do they even care?

 

[mazengh]

I think it will be easier to process a job that has been color adjusted for offset to work for flexo, because you can image 1 percent dots consistently. Whereas with non HD imagers you will need a bump curve, and prepress have to get rid of some of the lower % dots... someone correct me if i am wrong.

 

[Slammer]

Solvent plates have generally a high bump up, water washed on the other hand are pretty linear and hardly require any compensation. HD is a mix of 4000 ppi optics, software and procedures. I only see a real need for HD in just a few percent of all print jobs, hardly justifiying the high cost and effort to maintain the HD standard for a garden veraity printer, also as it takes longer to prduce the prints productivity drops and costs soar.
In my opinion the success of HD is more due to the hype and the propaganda of the advertising agency than any real gain in revenue and quality.

 

[richprint]

You're right, the Doe's wont see the difference. But we see the benefits with our customers. Some you don't and I really think its up to you on how you market HD. We service a number of clients who demand it, others, don't know much about it still want it and butcher it and complain about the plate quality. They are the ones who don't see the WOW factor. A lot of the time, for new customers or people who aren't sure they want it, we ask them when an order comes up that is a reprint we give them a free set of plates to try it and if they like it they generally come to us looking for more.

Where I see the WOW factor is on stand up pouch or reverse laminate freezer film bags. It really makes the artwork pop since most of the time these bags are filled with high quality images and lots of highlights. Before we would bump up to 3%-5% now we aren't bumping and doing 1-2% and that is where customers are seeing the benefits. It takes a while for printers to get used to the .5-1% dots but when you have clean aniloxes (1000-1200) for jobs 150lpi and higher, the results are outstanding. Nice thing about HD is MicroCell, if you're using a harder durometer plate, your densities are better with the MicroCell versus without it.

Narrow web guys are still working out the tweaks but I am seeing great results at 154lpi and higher for pressure sensitive labels and stamps. But I am seeing some nasty jobs from the subprime printers who want HD just so they can tell their customers they have HD. That is where the Esko marketing machine kicks in. They are going into any shop looking to put in a front end system hoping they will put in HD.