“It is a very good solution for flexo plate manufacturers who want to increase their production efficiency by switching to LED exposure at a very competitive cost,” says Adam Malengowski, Head of Prepress at the Polish flexo prepress company Fleksograf studio prepress, describing his experience with the Shine LED lamp set from Miraclon.
The Polish company Fleksograf studio prepress produces high-quality flexographic printing plates at sites in Druzyna and Wagrowiec for European packaging manufacturers, who mainly produce packaging for food and hygiene products.
Sustainable printing plate production
According to Miraclon, retrofitting existing UV platesetters fitted with fluorescent lamps with the Shine LED lamp set is a simple and cost-effective way of utilising the benefits of LED technology. These include a longer service life (up to 5,000 hours compared to 800 hours with fluorescent tubes), 20 per cent shorter exposure times and sustainability due to less waste and power consumption.
Quality and exposure
Adam Malengowski invested in the Shine LED lamp set and emphasises: “LEDs overcome one of the main problems of fluorescent tubes – the varying rate of power loss, which causes operators to waste a lot of time on process control, checking and recalibrating the tubes. In contrast, the Shine LED lamps only need to be set up once and then reliably deliver consistent lighting from lamp to lamp and within each lamp over many hours of production.” Thanks to the immediate heating and cooling of the LED lamps, the main exposure is significantly faster at around 12 minutes compared to an average of 22 minutes for fluorescent tubes.
Miraclon
Miraclon is a global company that has been helping to transform flexographic printing for more than a decade. Its technology, including the industry-leading FLEXCEL NX and FLEXCEL NX Ultra systems and the FLEXCEL NX Print Suite, which enables PureFlexo™ Printing, maximises print efficiency. With a focus on pioneering image science, innovation and collaboration with industry partners and customers, Miraclon is committed to the future of flexographic printing.
