Esko has unveiled a series of innovations at Loupe Americas 2026 designed to help packaging converters and trade shops improve print quality, simplify production and accelerate time-to-market.
Making its debut at the show is Quartz Thermal Screens (TQ), extending the proven performance of Esko Quartz screening technology to thermal flexographic plate production. Esko is also providing a first look at forthcoming UV Screens, while demonstrating new capabilities in WebCenter Pack, including a new AI-infused customer portal and integration with the GlobalVision tool, Verify Compare.
Together, the innovations demonstrate the company’s continued investment in connecting technologies and processes across the packaging workflow, from customer interaction and job specification through prepress and plate production, with quality embedded in the workflow.
“Loupe gives us an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how we are continuing to advance the technology behind packaging production,” said Jan De Roeck, director of marketing, strategy and industry relations at Esko.
“Quartz has established a new benchmark for flexographic print quality, and our WebCenter Pack innovations are facilitating a friction-free and more efficient interaction between converters and their packaging buyers early in the job onboarding process. It is all part of our focus on helping customers connect and accelerate their go-to-market.”
Quartz is the established industry benchmark for flexographic print quality, and with Quartz Thermal Screens Esko is bringing the Quartz print quality to thermal plates. The technology is designed to deliver consistent, high-quality screening across thermal plates while supporting thermal, solvent and water-based applications.
“Precisely engineered Q-Cell surface structures optimize ink transfer at a microscopic level, helping deliver smoother solids, cleaner highlights, improved tonal transitions and sharper detail,” said Jan. “The technology also enables a single screening approach across thermal, solvent and water-based plate production, helping simplify screening management and standardize print performance.”
Visitors to the Esko stand can preview groundbreaking new UV Screens, which are scheduled to launch later this year. The new screening technology will extend the Quartz approach to UV plate production, further expanding the range of flexographic applications that can benefit from the technology.
The Quartz ecosystem has also been shortlisted in the Innovation Award category of the Global Label Awards, being presented at the end of the first day at Loupe and marking the second time Esko has been shortlisted for the award in as many years.
Esko is also showcasing new capabilities in WebCenter Pack, including a new customer portal designed to strengthen collaboration between converters and their customers. “The new portal helps streamline customer interactions around job submissions and packaging artwork, reducing manual intervention and helping move jobs more efficiently into production,” said Jan.
In addition, Esko is demonstrating the integration of GlobalVision Verify Compare with WebCenter Pack, enabling artwork files to be sent from Esko WebCenter Pack for inspection, with comparison results and annotations returned to the WebCenter workflow. The integration provides a more connected approach to artwork verification while keeping inspection results within the broader artwork management process. AI agents support the job uploading process, simplifying the task of the CSR, as well as the process of comparing an artwork against a template for quality assurance.
These innovations reinforce the wider Esko Spec-to-Pack strategy, connecting people, processes and technologies to reduce complexity and accelerate packaging production.
“Connecting the individual stages of packaging production is critical if the industry is going to continue improving speed, quality and efficiency,” added Jan. “Whether we are talking about screening technology in the plate room or customer and artwork workflows in the cloud, our goal is the same, namely to remove unnecessary complexity, reduce manual handoffs and help our customers get from specification to finished pack faster.”
At Loupe, Esko is also participating in the Label Trail, a collaborative end-to-end demonstration with leading industry partners. The experience follows the production of sustainable labels for a fictional nutritional supplements brand, showcasing technologies spanning specification, order handling, prepress, carbon measurement, digital printing, embellishment, finishing and brand protection.
