Fleksograf studio prepress drives on-press efficiency without compromising on quality

Krzysztof Malengowski, owner of Polish prepress company Fleksograf studio prepress, sums up their business approach with customers in one word: Quality. Their company logo, “When Quality Counts”, underscores this too.

Meeting and exceeding customer expectations is their everyday goal, and Krzysztof credits the technology they implement as one of the main reasons for continuously meeting these standards:

“Our customers come to us for two reasons: first, for our expertise in wide-web flexo printing, and second because the percentage of failed prints from using KODAK FLEXCEL NX plates from Miraclon is so low – only about 1% – a great production win for them. The high quality print these plates deliver is assumed, as our customers all only produce premium quality jobs.”

Malengowski has been very selective about the prepress equipment the company uses. “Our approach is a bit different,” he says. “We use exclusively FLEXCEL NX and, more recently, added KODAK FLEXCEL NX Ultra plates. We have a plate-making solution that is near perfect, so don’t see any reason to offer customers anything else. The fact that we use these solutions, together with our knowledge and experience of flexo and FLEXCEL NX, are important reasons for our customers to work with us.”

Fleksograf studio prepress initially invested in the FLEXCEL NX System in 2010 as a single replacement technology that offered the respective quality and on-press stability of the combined KODAK ThermoFlex and analogue technologies previously in place.

Malengowski continues: “Once I realized that FLEXCEL NX combined the consistency of dots with high print quality, I was convinced that it was a breakthrough technology. At that time, laminating plates with TIL was controversial in the Polish flexographic market and a risky move for us to make. However, I can now say that the decision was a good one; after many years of the Polish market being dominated by other players, our clients finally got what they’d been waiting for – stable plates with true one-to-one flat top dot reproduction, delivering excellent quality and on-press consistency.”

The best got even better

Having enjoyed great success with the FLEXCEL NX System, Malengowski was keen to also adopt FLEXCEL NX Ultra, the plate-making solution that delivered the same transformational benefits as FLEXCEL NX, but in a high-speed, solvent-free, VOC-free environment, from Miraclon after he saw the technology preview at drupa in 2016.

“From the very first look at the prints,” he says, “we knew that it was a game-changing and universal solution that would be perfect for printing both on foil and cardboard. And using an aqueous-based, VOC-free process, it also fulfilled the requirement of our investment plans – and of our motto ‘Be eco, choose water’ – for an environmentally friendly system.”

On that basis, he started talks in 2018 about the installation of a beta system, which was delivered in 2019. Malengowski was impressed from Day 1: “We’ve also found that FLEXCEL NX Ultra plates deliver the multiple benefits, including on-press stability and consistency, in addition to the excellent print quality our customers have become accustomed to.  We even have a customer that is using FLEXCEL NX Ultra plates to print 175 lpi or even 200 lpi. They also now often produce certain jobs using flexo that they previously had to print gravure”.

“It’s also worth emphasizing that dots are reproduced one-to-one, which allows for comparable proofing to the actual results achieved on a flexographic press. When using NX Ultra plates, the optical density of the ink is higher, so the color is stronger. Our customers can therefore use inks with a lower concentration of pigment, which are less expensive. And the aniloxes used transfer less ink, which is also more cost-effective. I’ve never noticed any problems with, for example, clients ordering additional plates based on an old design – they just mount them onto the press and seamlessly reproduce the job.

“NX Ultra provides excellent ink transfer and the plates don’t need to be flushed and cleaned during a print run. Plate production time is also much shorter– the time it takes from the very beginning of the process to the point at which the plate is ready for printing is only about 50 minutes.”

With regards to the “eco-benefits” that the FLEXCEL NX Ultra Solution offer, Malengowski feels that, while the pandemic has temporarily reduced the emphasis on the environment, the focus on sustainability will return stronger than before. “That’s why”, he says, “we’re concentrating on aqueous plates, a water-based process to better protect the environment. By using the water-based process, we’re also improving the working environment of our employees by getting rid of solvent odors and emissions.”

When the going gets tough

Just as the pandemic has affected all businesses, Fleksograf studio prepress also had to adjust to minimize its impact. Malengowski remarks, “The situation has changed quite significantly. At the beginning, we managed to retain the continuity of our work and were able to work in shifts. But with the increase in cases of COVID-19, we had to come up with a different solution and established a system, via a special link with our company server, to allow the people, who can, to work remotely from home.”

Nevertheless, he remains upbeat about the future of Fleksograf studio prepress, “Our most important goal is still to ensure that our clients are satisfied not only with our plates, but also with our engagement and support. To achieve that, through our ongoing use of FLEXCEL NX and FLEXCEL NX Ultra, we’ll keep concentrating on making the flexo plate production process and all contact with clients as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. We’ll also focus on making remote working – both in terms of establishing foreign branches of Fleksograf studio prepress as well as by cooperating with other companies via the internet – even more efficient for the company. And in doing so, we’ll continue to demonstrate to our customers that when you want the best, we can deliver every time.”

About Fleksograf studio prepress

It was while studying Egyptology at the University of Warsaw that Malengowski first encountered the prepress process, at that time for offset printing. “A lot of an Egyptologist’s work involves copying ancient writing, such as hieroglyphics, and I learned how to use various types of computer software to do that, so in a way it’s related to what I do now.” Hooked on prepress, he then worked for various flexographic prepress companies until, confident that he could provide a higher quality of customer service, he set up Fleksograf studio prepress on his own in 2001. Within a year, the company had five staff and has since grown to two sites with 35 people who provide a full range of high-caliber prepress services, including approximately 10,000m² of flexo plates per year, to a variety of customers across Europe in markets such as food and hygiene.