On 12 March 2026, Miraclon announced the global launch of the Flexcel Prime Plate, its most advanced plate technology to date, designed to retain the industry-leading characteristics of Flexcel NX plates. The new performance-driven features help printers reduce press stops, improve plate reuse, and increase overall press uptime.
The multi-year research and development program, and extensive field validation in commercial production environments, have delivered the Flexcel Prime – comprising a new plate and film combination. It has already been installed at over 30 customer sites across 14 countries, and more than 5,000 commercial print jobs have been produced with the new plate. In its web launch, Miraclon stated that users have confirmed tangible performance improvements in daily production.
Customers have said that the new plate doesn’t curl and its lay-flat characteristics help in examining and handling it in mounting and reuse. Called lift resist formulation, the Prime plate is engineered for improved plate drape and surface consistency, for easier mounting, and re-mounting. The reduced plate curl is said to support better plate reuse and wider press latitude. “The plate’s optimized chemical structure requires lower impression and maintains consistent performance over time, helping reduce waste and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). ”
The other characteristic is that the new Prime requires less cleaning from ink buildup and less drying during press runs. While less press time is taken for cleaning plates (apparently about 23%), the production is claimed to be more consistent with improved run lengths. Reid Chesterfield, chief Technology & Innovation officer at Miraclon, says, “Reducing ink build-up and lowering impression requirements, which extend plate life, are measurable gains that translate directly into increased efficiencies and more stable production on press.”
Another interesting point made during the launch presentation was that the new Prime plates are interchangeable in use with the Flexcel NXH plates, and a combination of the two types of plates can be used without any loss of quality. This will mean that earlier Flexcel NXH sets of plates can be used even with the change of one or more Prime plates. This will make the transition to newer plates easier for the large number of Flexcel NXH users. During the launch event, it was stated that while the Prime plates are available and ready with 30 users running them in production, the rollout will be done ‘systematically’, country by country.
There’s no real change to the hardware in the field, although an engineer has to come and load the new software and introduce the new film and plate. A shorter de-tack/light finishing (UVC) step reduces processing time from approximately 20 minutes to around five minutes, increasing throughput.
The Seamless Fit Printing approach enables printers to run mixed Flexcel NXH and Flexcel Prime plate sets without reprofiling, curve changes, or workflow modifications. This can eliminate or reduce the time, cost, and risk typically associated with introducing a new plate into production. “With Flexcel Prime, users gain new performance advantages while continuing to operate within their established workflows. We made it better, not different,” said Emma Watson, Chief Marketing Officer at Miraclon.
