Apr 8 2014
Sagawa Printing Group Ltd., one of the largest printing companies in Japan, has purchased two KODAK FLEXCEL Direct Systems. Sagawa chose the FLEXCEL Direct System for its superior quality and productivity advantages.
Sagawa Printing plans to provide premier solutions in four areas: printing, digital data, distribution and RFID. The firm is constructing a worksite for flexographic printing, where two KODAK FLEXCEL Direct Systems for flexographic platemaking will be introduced, together with two flexographic printing presses, two extrusion lines and two laminators.
“In our quest to purchase a platemaking system, we focused on direct engraving systems because we’ve been using large direct engraving machines for publication gravure printing,” says Akihiko Uyama, Director, Sagawa Printing. “A simpler platemaking process was another advantage of direct engraving platemaking systems. We incorporated the KODAK FLEXCEL Direct System because of its high productivity based on unique, high-power semiconductor laser imaging technology. Its ease of use was another key to our selection.”
Sagawa will incorporate water-based flexographic printing to enhance its environmental footprint. The KODAK FLEXCEL Direct System is at the core of Sagawa’s platemaking process for flexographic printing with water-based-ink, driving success in the printing process with its superior quality and productivity potential.
“The fact Sagawa Printing has selected the FLEXCEL Direct Systems shows how aggressively we’ve been digitizing the platemaking process in the flexographic industry and providing solutions optimized for that purpose as well as improving product performance,” says Hiroshi Fujiwara, Managing Director, Kodak Japan. “In suggesting solutions to Sagawa Printing, we focused on how our industry experience could help them meet their goals.”
The KODAK FLEXCEL Direct System features innovative, energy-efficient, high-power semiconductor laser imaging technology, Kodak-formulated press-ready elastomers and workflow software for accurate image reproduction.