A quest to improve production efficiency and turnaround times without sacrificing print quality has seen UK flexo repro house MPH turn to Asahi Photoproducts’ AFP-REVO HF solvent plates.
Early results suggest success, according to the company, with drying times approximately halved, and solvent savings of around 20% realised in an ongoing evaluation.
“We’ve been supplying premium solvent-processed plates successfully for years and the print quality was never really the issue,” explained MPH director Craig Alderson. “But we were feeling the squeeze from a few directions at once – energy costs, solvent usage and the pressure to turn jobs around faster. It made us take a harder look at whether there was a better way of doing things.”
Drying time has been the most significant benefit so far, with this reducing from around 120 minutes to around 60 minutes in conventional solvent plate production. In turn, this is supporting more flexible scheduling and a greater capacity to respond to urgent customer requirements. The faster developing process is also supporting the solvent savings of at least 20%.
In addition, MPH was also using thermal plate processing for urgent jobs where speed was a decisive factor but now has a lesser dependence on this processing technology because the increased solvent plate production speeds with the AFP-REVO HF plates makes fast turnaround work feasible.
“AFP-REVO HF has slotted in well alongside the investments we’ve already made in imaging and LED exposure,” added Mr Alderson. “It is a very strong product and a great fit for where we’re trying to take the business – better quality, faster service and more efficient production.”
