Colour Accurate Digital Proofs Reproduce In Flexo

Flexographic plate producer Brownett of Derby (UK) has installed GMG's Flexoproof software to provide customers with accurate, reproduceable proofs of jobs prior to platemaking.

Flexographic plate producer Brownett of Derby (UK) has installed GMG's Flexoproof software to provide customers with accurate, reproduceable proofs of jobs prior to platemaking.

The software and installation support were provided by GMG dealer CT and Line, which specialises in providing proofing products for the flexographic sector.

Brownett , which manufactures some 75 to 100 flexo plates per day, invested in the GMG system after a detailed analysis of all of the options currently available.

The company's managing director, Mark Brownett, said: "Traditionally, we had used a high-end analogue system for producing proofs.

They were expensive and time consuming to produce and so the advent of straightforward digital prints was a great benefit to us and our clients.

The issue then was producing colour accurate proofs.

Having reviewed all of the leading systems on the market, GMG's Flexoproof was the only product to give us all of the advantages that we were looking for - low cost consumables and printer hardware, combined with colour accuracy and proof results that could be reproduced on a flexo press.

Too often in our search we found products that produced a very eye-catching, high-quality proof, which could appeal to some customers but would be impossible for the press minder to replicate during the actual print run." With the GMG proofing RIP Brownett can go through a finger print process with a customer to create an individual proofing profile for that company's press, which takes all of the major variables of flexography in to consideration, said CT and Line.

The process includes two sets of plates featuring test images.

The first plate set is run by the customer and the results returned to Brownett.

The company takes readings from the printed copies to provide information on dot-gain and basic density values.

That information is used in the creation of the second set of test plates, which, when printed, will be scanned in to the GMG software, via the integrated GretagMacbeth ICColour spectrophotometer.

The second test job provides the RIP with details about the press's ability to reproduce colour.

The results of the two runs are combined to create a customer profile that will be used to proof jobs for that client, matching the colour capabilities of the press and replicating exactly the dot gain that needs to be accounted for.

Commenting on the ability to produce bespoke profiles, Mark Brownett added: "This routine sounds quite complex but it does mean that we get a proof that is very accurately matched to our customers printing capabilities.

Experience, however, has already shown us that for many tasks a series of standard label and packaging profiles that we have created for use with some of the main substrates encountered within the industry provide very good results for a large proportion of the work that we undertake." Colin Taylor, technical director at CT and Line, commenting on the installation, said: "Mark and his team were keen to find a proofing system that provided realistic results.

The GMG system allows for very detailed finger-printing of the customers press, which means that when the customers signs-off on a GMG proof, that's exactly what gets printed.

That includes all the detail, right down to screened images.

The GMG proof will replicate exactly the screen ruling and angle that will be used on press and will appear within the final print." Brownett came in to being in 2003 following a management buyout by Mark Brownett and his partner Vicky of the origination and platemaking unit at Gerhardt, the cutting tool specialist firm.

Mark Brownett commented: "Platemaking was always a side-line at Gerhardt, whose main business was in providing cutting tools for the printing industry and other markets.

We were able to take the factory unit next to Gerhardt and recruit all of the origination and platemaking team as well as taking the existing equipment as part of the buyout.

We now employ 22 people within a 6,000 square foot facility - a site which we will be purchasing outright in the very near future." The company has grown steadily in the two years since the buyout and Brownett and his team are looking to make further equipment investments in the near future.

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