Numex Blocks, a flexography prepress business headquartered in Mumbai, recently installed a state-of-the-art DuPont Cyrel FAST TD2000 flexo thermal platemaking system. Numex specializes in flexo and letterpress plate production for customers in the flexible packaging, labels, letterpress, and dry offset markets in India.
The adoption of flexo is growing in the flexible packaging industry, as brand owners and converters look for more sustainable and cost-effective printing solutions. As a result, they are increasingly shifting their gravure printing jobs to the flexographic printing process for short to medium-run length jobs. India has seen significant growth in this segment, where customers are looking for high-quality print jobs and shorter turnaround times for multiple SKUs, making flexo the ideal process.
The advantages of the flexographic process are numerous: it can be used to print on a variety of surfaces, there are multiple ink options such as water, solvent-based, UV or LED curable, and it requires minimal setup time, making short runs more cost-effective.
Moreover, technological advances have significantly improved the quality of flexo printing. With these developments, it’s unsurprising that the demand for flexographic printing solutions is growing significantly, and poised to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
“We have been at the forefront of adopting the latest technologies when it comes to platemaking. Many firsts have happened at Numex when it comes to adopting technology. The DuPont Cyrel FAST TD2000 flexo thermal platemaking system is another step in that direction. The system offers a solvent-free plate-making process that addresses sustainability concerns and meets the needs of customers who require plates made through solvent-free processes. As a trade shop, Numex Blocks can provide various solutions to meet the customers’ needs,” Nitin Patil, the owner of Numex Blocks, said.
Patil said there is an increasing demand for solvent-free plates, and it is expected to grow significantly in the next three to five years.
The Cyrel FAST 2000 TD system uses dry, thermal technology to process Cyrel photopolymer plates, eliminating the need for solvent. This eliminates the need for plate drying equipment and a clean room for operation.
“The DuPont Cyrel FAST TD2000 flexo thermal platemaking system significantly reduces environmental impact and contributes to higher productivity levels. Solvent-free plate production achieves quicker plate turnaround times and eliminates the need for solvent-based cleaning processes, providing significant time savings and productivity boost,” Patil said.
