In today's business climate free is good. Free and relevant is even better! We've assembled a group of industry experts for a series of free webinars that will focus on how printers like you can maximize efficiency and profitability through an automated workflow:

• Dr. Joe Webb of WhatTheyThink.com will discuss the current economic climate and key strategies for post-recession success.
• Jim Aust, Business Analyst, Kodak, will share his experience in analyzing commercial print operations and discuss real-life examples of how productivity and costs were improved by implementing an efficient, automated workflow.
• Rick Mazur, Commercial Print Segment Leader, Kodak, will lead a Q&A interview with a Kodak customer who improved profitability by switching to a Kodak Unified Workflow Solution.

The webinar will conclude with a live demonstration of the KODAK PRINERGY Workflow System, integrating the KODAK INSITE Prepress Portal System.

These webinars will be offered several times over the next few weeks. For dates and times, and to register, please visit: http://complete.kodak.com.

If you're like me, you might be walking around a lot of the time and wondering, "Is anybody out there listening to me?!" I know a place you can go where the answer will most definitely be, "Yes!"

The 2009 Graphic Users' Association North American Conference takes place May 17-20 in Orlando Florida. The GUA is a worldwide Kodak users group that is dedicated to keeping lines of communications open between Kodak and its customers. At this year's conference, we've got customers coming in from across North America for this year's conference. And, there will be a lot of Kodak people - from members of the executive management team to product managers and software developers - on hand learn about our customers' businesses and listen for feedback.

This isn't just a Kodak guy saying so. Check out this video from Tom Clifford, the president of the GUA and a prepress supervisor who does not work for Kodak.



The theme of this year's conference is "Efficiency Revealed," and in these times, who couldn't use some more efficiency to wring extra profit out of your business.

If you'd like to learn more about the conference - or better yet, to register - go to www.gua2009.com. I hope to see you in Orlando. I'll be ready to listen. I promise.

After reading Esko's "revolutionary" press release dated March 25 we did a fair bit of head scratching, and while it is not our normal style to comment on our competitors' press releases, we just had to respond with a couple of simple questions. So what is really new, and how can something that is not new be revolutionary?

So how is 4000dpi laser imaging and hybrid screening revolutionary for flexo? Hybrid screening has been in use for many years and there are lasers that are used for imaging flexo at 9600 and 12400 dpi.

Matching offset with flexo. Well that's nothing new either. The Kodak Flexcel NX System has been doing that for the last 18 months with a 2400dpi Squarespot imaging device. It achieves 1:1 image transfer from the digital file to the plate from 10 microns up to 300lpi using AM, hybrid and FM screening, the same as they use in offset.





And about square pixels in the data file and a round laser beam, even John's three year old Lilly knows that the round block does not fit properly in the square hole. This means that a 1:1 digital pixel to dot on plate can never be achieved with a round laser beam.

Irrespective of this "revolution" in resolution and screening technology (which as we said before is really nothing new) the fact that it is applied to traditional digital black mask flexo plates still remains, resulting in oxygen inhibition and rounded bullet shaped dots. These rounded bullet shaped dots are clearly accepted by some of the statements in the press release as causing variation in the press room, delays in press set up, reduced plate life and production inconsistency. This means that the plate is a major cause for variation in existing digital black mask flexo plate systems (here at Kodak we have been saying that for more than a year). The new imaging and screening does not change the profile of the printing dots, so how can it significantly affect their performance on press? High resolution and hybrid screening can certainly help your highlight and fine line performance; we have technology to do this too. Keeping the rounded dots there and keeping them consistent in real world production is the challenge, and only a flat top dot can enable the stability and wide impression latitude that we all desire for true consistency - it is simple physics 101!



Lilly also loves to draw with an ultrafine pencil, which is comparable to small dots, but even Lilly knows that coloring in the shapes in her coloring book takes a long time with such a fine pencil. It is just lucky that as a Flexo industry we don't need to do large solid areas on our plates, otherwise that could slow imaging down greatly.

ESKO claims that more than 90% of all digital flexo plates and sleeves are imaged on CDI imagers. We know this is not true. Kodak is a major supplier of flexo imaging devices and unless none of our customers are actually using their Thermoflex and Trendsetter NX devices to image flexo plates, then the statement must be false. I have actually visited and seen them working in trade shops and printers all around the world. When you see clearly overstated claims like this in a press release it makes you start to question all of the other claims.

Their sustainability statements are a little questionable too. Once again others seem to be hung up primarily in the solvent vs thermal debate instead of looking at the big picture, where industry data indicates that the greatest environmental impact that can be affected by flexo plate choice is in print production. So it's clear that the flexo plate should be chosen to reduce the actual number of plates used, optimize productivity and minimize waste in the pressroom.

Esko's statements throughout the press release indicate that the current digital black mask flexo plate system has a whole series of issues that need addressing - issues that have a serious effect on production performance, resulting in higher levels of waste. It's hard to see how just smoothing the dot edge of a round top dot will have the significant effect that they claim in all but the exceptional cases.

Wide impression latitude, significantly extended plate life and consistency are key parameters in minimizing this environmental impact. Sort these issues out and you really start to see the environmental benefits. The improved predictability, reliability and consistency that Kodak's plates deliver, with their 1:1 image reproduction and flat top dots, enable printers to achieve significantly improved waste reduction in production.

The Flexcel NX plate system was built for superior press performance, addressing many of the significant weaknesses of traditional digital flexo. The inherent weaknesses of digital flexo just can not be overcome with 4000 dpi imaging and hybrid screening alone, although they can do a nice job of masking some of the issues!

At best Esko's step forward is evolutionary for them..... it's certainly not revolutionary for flexo!

This post was co-written by Emma Schlotthauer, Global Current Marketing for Flexo at Eastman Kodak.