New Innovations in Plates and Sleeves Rich Emmerling Technical Manager rich.emmerling@flintgrp.com 770-366-5689 New Innovations in Plates and Sleeves

Flint Group Flexographic Products Comprehensive Expertise in Flexographic Printing

Flint Group: Powerful Roots

Flint Group History November 2004 CVC acquired ANI Inks and BASF Printing Systems. September 2005 XSYS acquired Flint Ink, a privately owned company with operations in USA, Europe, Latin America, Asia and India/Pacific. Integration of these businesses lead to creation of Flint Group, number two ink supplier worldwide. In 2007 Day International was integrated into Flint Group. 2008 Flint Group Printing Plates and rotec became Flint Group Flexographic Products.

Flint Group Overview 2011 Sales: €2.2 billion (US$ 3 billion) Number of employees: 6 900 >170 company sites in over 40 countries Global network of partners and distributors

Flint Group Locations Worldwide

Flint Group – Business Segments Flint Group’s products are everywhere in our daily life and can be split into two segments: Packaging Products Print Media Products

Flint Group – Products Packaging Print Media Packaging inks Packaging and Narrow Web Flexographic Products Europe Americas Asia-Pacific Packaging inks Inks for labels and other narrow web printing applications Sleeves and adapters for flexo and offset printing Photopolymer printing plates for flexo and letterpress applications Processing equipment Printing inks for heatset, coldset, sheetfed, gravure and specialty printing Lithographic printing blankets and sleeves Pressroom chemicals Pigments

Flexographic Products - Extensive Product Range rotec® nylosolv® Sleeves and adapters Printing plates for Flexible packaging Label printing Corrugated (Pre- and postprint) Ready-to-image ITR Sleeves Processing equipment Washout solvents Printing plates for Label printing Tubes, cups and tins printing Security printing Pad printing Embossing & hot moulding Processing equipment nyloflex® nyloprint®

Worldwide Presence Distributors in more than 100 countries Main Offices Germany, Stuttgart* Subsidiaries Australia Brazil China* Denmark France Netherland Spain UK USA* Production sites Plates, equipment and washout solvents Germany, Willstätt** Sleeves and adapters Germany, Ahaus** Czech Republic, Chrastava USA, Asheville Distributors in more than 100 countries * holding Technical Center ** holding R&D Center

Market Shares World 2011: Photopolymer Printing Plates Data Source: internal estimations

Market Shares World 2011: Sleeves Data Source: internal estimations

Topics The NEW nyloflex® ACE: The Benchmark for High Quality Flexo nyloflex® NExT Exposure Technology: High Definition, Flat Top Dots & Surface Screening Improvements With Solid Ink Density High Opacity Values Using Less Ink Fit For Flat Top Dot Technology

Introducing nyloflex® New ACE

nyloflex® ACE - Why Change a Proven Winner?.. Introduced in 2001 quickly becoming market standard for high quality print Confirmed by numerous print awards throughout the years

nyloflex® ACE – What Could Be Improved? Plate Room Press Room Reliability and Productivity Higher quality ingredients Stable color, less tack improves handling and is more user friendly No change in pre-press necessary Performance and Cost Better solvent resistance Improved ink transfer, fewer press stops Compatibility with new plate technologies

The NEW nyloflex® ACE – Physical Properties 62 Shore A (DIN 53505), same as previous nyloflex® ACE Designed for solvent, water and UV curable flexographic inks Improved overall image quality and color stability, with a brighter green color

Comparison of ACE and NEW ACE Nearly identical dot area Can use same files Verified in 100+ trials Dot Percent on Print Dot Percent on Plate Dot Percent in File

The NEW nyloflex® ACE – Customers’ Feedback “As a leading printer of confectionary bars we ran 1,500,000 ft and no cleaning of the plates was needed.” “…label printing job with the NEW nyloflex® ACE Digital ran 200,000 ft, no stops for cleaning were necessary.” “We printed 1,000,000 ft of pet food bags without cleaning (normally we stop to clean after 500,000 ft); We were able to run the job 175 fpm faster and saved 7.5 hours in press time!” “A difficult hygiene packaging job 650,000 ft could be printed without stop for cleaning - constant print quality over the whole production run.” “We ran 70,000 lbs of film substrate on the potato chips job with only one set of NEW nyloflex® ACE Digital where previously we needed to replace the plates after 30,000 lbs.” “High speed flexible packaging job, 1,650,000 ft printed without cleaning.” “110,000 ft diapers job with showed excellent ink transfer and the reduced ink consumption for achieving target density.”

nyloflex® NExT Exposure Technology The NEW nyloflex® ACE – nyloflex® NExT Exposure Technology Outstanding performance with HD Flexo screening Designed to work well with both digital Round Top Dots as well as Flat Top Dots

Improving Solid Ink Density Combining Plate and Surface Screening Technologies

Topics Surface Screening - Solid Ink Density Surface Screening – Opacity Flat Top Dot Approaches Fit For Flat Top Dot Plates

Improve SID and smoothness Basic advice: Optimize parameters Harder plate cushion, more ink, substrate treatment, etc. Problem is that an improvement HERE may take away from THERE... 1.2 1.4

Minimize or control mottle Better method: Surface Screening In use for a long time Many versions throughout the years, but idea remains the same – textured plate surface reduces mottle through better ink distribution and coverage Screenings historically 300 – 600 LPI Use 90-97% Tint in Solids Plate Cell Patterning Digicap Groovy Screening

Reasons for Dot Shapes The oxygen effect during exposure of digital flexo plates Conventional exposure with film negative and UV-A tubes Digital exposure with LAMS-layer and UV-A tubes UV UV UV UV UV O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 Dot gain Dot reduction Dot reduction due to the oxygen effect

Reasons for Dot Shapes The oxygen effect during exposure of digital flexo plates Conventional exposure with film negative and UV-A tubes Digital exposure with LAMS-layer and UV-A tubes UV UV UV UV UV O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 O2 Tonwertreduktion Dot reduction due to the oxygen effect

Plate with different surface screens Ablated Mask Digital w/ O2 Flat Top MicroCell MC8 800 LPI @ 4000 2X2 Pixel Checkerboard 1414 LPI @ 4000

Print results Plate= Solid Low Screens (<800 LPI) Mid Screens High Screens (>1000 LPI) Digital with O2 1.32 +/- 0.09 1.43 +/- 0.15 1.30 +/- 0.13 +/- 0.12 Flat Top 1.35 +/- 0.11 1.54 1.64 Based on 22 Print Trials

Crosslinking w/o oxygen effect The Potential Crosslinking w/o oxygen effect Solid screening with oxygen effect Solid screening without oxygen effect

What About White Opacity? Can Surface Screens Using Flat Top Dot Technology Improve Opacity With Solid Whites?

Purpose Gain an understanding of the optimum plate durometer, cushion tape and surface screening parameters to maximize white opacity readings at high press speeds.

Plates (High Speed Test) Plates – Digital (0.067”) FAM D and ACE D (Flat Top Dot) Cushion Tape – (0.020”) 3M 1920, 3M 1020 and 3M 1820 Surface Screening Microcell - 4000 DPI 17 Patterns One Smooth Solid

Press Conditions Press – Wide Web Flexible Packaging Anilox – 220 lpi/9.0 bcm Ink – Flint High Speed Surface White Viscosity – 28 seconds Press Speed – 1200 ft/min. Substrate – Polyester

Test Target

High Values Of Plate And Tape Contrast Ratio Function

Values Ranked By Surface Screening Value These are the highest opacity readings found for each of the SS parameters. As you can see there is a high range of aprox 2%. The dark blue bar is the non SS patch. 65 - Contrast Ratio Function

Second Test Evaluate opacity using lower anilox volume and Flat Top Dot surface screening parameters. Will there be a greater differences in opacity using lower anilox volumes? Will this reduce ink consumption while delivering acceptable opacity?

Press Conditions Press – Wide Web Flexible Packaging Anilox – 440 lpi/5.5 bcm Ink – High Speed Surface White Viscosity – 28 seconds Press Speed – 1200 ft/min. Substrate – Polyester

Opacity – FAM D & 3M 1820 Cushion Tape MC 2X3N FAM D 3M 1820 Opacity 64.6% No Surface Screening FAM D 3M 1820 Opacity % 61.8 (440 lpi/5.5 bcm) Contrast Ratio Function

Opacity – ACE D & 3M 1820 Cushion Tape MC 3X3C ACE D 3M 1820 Opacity 64.1% No Surface Screening ACE D 3M 1820 Opacity 60.8% (440 lpi/5.5 bcm) Contrast Ratio Function

Coating Weight and Opacity Contrast Ratio Function

Conclusions Flat Top Dot technology allows for a greater level of detail at the surface. Surface screening reduced pinholes and increased the opacity. Increasing the modulus of the cushion tape increased opacity.

Conclusions Higher opacity levels were achieved using surface screening allowing for the use of lower anilox volumes and potentially eliminating the need for a double bump.

FTD Approaches

“Flat Top Dot” Technology Kodax NX Film lamination on special CTP device similar to offset Trendsetter laser Requires special laser, special film consumable, requires use of special Kodak plate material Format up to 42x60” size

“Flat Top Dot” Technology MacDermid LUX Lamination of film material to plate with some heat and pressure Requires laminator and special film

“Flat Top Dot” Technology DuPont Digiflow® (aka Digicorr) Retrofit to older top lift exposure units or equipped on new exposure units. Pumps nitrogen & oxygen gas mixture onto the plate

“Flat Top Dot” Technology Esko Inline UV Retrofit or new machine with LED diode parts Used for both flexo and letterpress plates

Flint Group‘s Solution for Flat Top Dots and Surface Screening nyloflex® NExT? Flint Group‘s Solution for Flat Top Dots and Surface Screening

reduction of oxygen inhibition effect NExT exposure process reduction of oxygen inhibition effect oxygen exclusion inertisation oxygen barrier use of auxiliaries: inert gas (nitrogen) use of auxiliaries: film consumption additional processing step (risk, costs) inert gas consumption and risk acceleration of polymerization speed New high intensity UV exposure high intensity UV irradiation for strong surface cure + conventional UV tubes exposure for through-cure

New approach of Flint Group Two step exposure Combination of UV-A LEDs with UV-A tubes Step 1 – High intensity UV LED surface crosslinking Step 2 – Through-cure with conventional UV tubes

nyloflex® NExT Operation

Precise reproduction nyloflex® NExT Digitally imaged LAMS layer and nyloflex® NExT technology O2 UV Almost 1:1 copy

NExT Plate Image Samples 3 pt font (2540 dpi) (transmitted light) 3 pt font (2540 dpi) (reflected light)

NExT Plate Image Samples 5% data @146lpi (2540 dpi) (transmitted light) 5% data @146lpi (2540 dpi) (reflected light)

NExT Plate Image Samples 2% data @146lpi (2540 dpi) (transmitted light) 2% data @146lpi (2540 dpi) (reflected light)

3% data @146lpi (2540 dpi) (transmitted light) NExT Plate Image Samples 3% data @146lpi (2540 dpi) (transmitted light)

nyloflex® NExT – Processing Equipment nyloflex® NExT Exposure FIII Mid size exposure unit Format 920 x 1200 mm (47.2 x 36.2“) nyloflex® NExT Exposure FV Large size exposure unit Format 1320 x 2032 mm (52 x 80“)

UV LED module Electrical connectors water connection for cooling Housing with cooling profile LEDs with optics and quatrz glass 59

NExT UV LED Bar 49.4” radiation width even with one module out Modular system → 12 x 4.5“ Radiation length = 53.9“ 49.4” radiation width even with one module out Ethernet port for each module for remote diagnosis / recovery at manufacturer

The Benefits of nyloflex® NExT High-intensity LEDs (> 800 mW/cm2) for highest productivity Consistent UV emission guarantees long-term repeatability  Production consistency, especially for repeat orders Easy-to-use – requires no additional processing steps or consumables (such as lamination, inert gas etc.) Suitable for all digital flexo plates – any plate type, thickness & format  High flexibility Compatible with all standard prepress software & HD Flexo Easy implementation into existing digital workflow

nyloflex® NExT

nyloflex® NExT

Do Not Forget The Tooling New plate and FTD exposure technologies assist in moving the quality target upward. However, are your sleeve and bridges up to this task? When was the last sleeve audit performed? An upgrade in this area may also be necessary.

Thanks for your attention! Questions? Flint Group Flexographic Products Extensive product range Customer oriented service Excellent technical knowledge Global presence Innovative solutions Thanks for your attention! Questions? Rich Emmerling Technical Manager rich.emmerling@flintgrp.com 770-366-5689