Automation looks set to rock flexo pre-press

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Recent years have seen amazing advances in the areas of 3D design for folding cartons, flexible packaging and shrinkwraps. Offset pre-press workflows have also seen leaps forward in automation, to the point where it’s become an ‘industrial process,’ rather than an ‘art.’ However, pre-press for flexography has tended to lag behind, with only ‘islands of automation,’ and skilled operators wasting time doing repetitive tasks.

It looks as if things are finally starting to change. Market leader EskoArtwork is facing some serious challenges on the pre-press side from other big names: Kodak and Screen already, and maybe FujiFilm soon. So Esko is responding with a whole new automation capability of its own.

Here we survey what’s happening in automated workflows for flexo and how they affect related areas in proofing, on-line ordering and collaborative approvals, and management information systems.

The term ‘workflow’ is always frustratingly vague. In this case it’s what used to be called a RIP before manufacturers bolted on all sorts of additional prepress processing features and persuaded them to run on servers with various degrees of automation.

All modern workflows use native PDF workflows, so it’s possible to take a file (or a ‘page’ element from within a file) at any stage of the production cycle, edit it in Illustrator, Photoshop or whatever, then drop it straight back in the cycle. This wasn’t possible with older PostScript based workflows, that had to start again if you needed to edit a PDF. Any workflow with either the current Adobe APPE 1/2 or Global Graphics Harlequin systems at its heart uses native PDF. This means pretty much everything.

According to Paul Bates, regional business manager for EskoArtwork in the UK, the major thrust in workflows is currently full automation, where flexo companies have previously lagged behind offset and digital processes. ‘In 2009 our biggest success was in workflow automation. Before that a lot of people with our servers had not fully automated their operations,’ he says.

‘For years we talked about JDF and automated workflows. Very few customers used it though. It was originally developed for commercial print, but the packaging guys have now realised it can take out their repetitive tasks. As companies have scaled down on their number of people, they are realising the benefit of automation.

‘Generally the most skilled pre-press operators are working in packaging, but 90% of the time they are working on mind-numbing repetitive tasks. Or they are typing in barcode numbers and making mistakes. But if you already have the barcodes entered automatically into an MIS, why type it in again?’

EskoArtwork is the main player in the packaging market, both flexible and carton board. Its current incarnation was born from a merger of Esko Graphics with Artwork Systems in 2007. Since then it has been working to integrate the two companies’ separate prepress workflow technologies: Esko’s BackStage and AWS’ Nexus and Odystar.

This year it will complete this integration by starting to release modules of its new Suite 10. This will take the best features of all three current systems, according to Arjen Maarleveld, senior vice president of products. He says it “brings together the easy-to-learn user interface of Odystar with the ArtPro automation tools of Nexus and the job and data management strengths of BackStage.”

Suite 10 was first discussed in detail as a ‘roadmap’ just before Labelexpo in Brussels last September. It features five software ‘engines’ in combination with modified tools. The engines in this context are server applications that automatically execute tasks in the background. Tools are the desktop applications for prepress, CAD, packaging design and colour management that operators use on a daily basis to prepare jobs for print.

Automation Engine 10, coming first, is the core workflow automation and job management system that’s scalable so is suitable for everything from small single site operations to multi-site, multi-plant global operations. The other four engines handle colour management, output imaging, collaboration and dynamic content (see the ‘online approvals’ section below for the last two).

Mr Bates says that the Suite 10 Automation Engine will go into Alpha testing during Q1 of this year. It will be shown at the Ipex show as a Beta stage in May, with final release planned for Q4.

Upgrades of the established EskoArtwork tools for graphic and structural design, prepress and proofing will be integrated with the Suite 10 engines. The Packedge (standalone workstation) and Deskpack (plug-ins to Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop) tool sets range from creative design through to pre-press production functions.

EskoArtwork is now facing increasing competition from other suppliers of flexo platesetters, though none can match its full integrated suite of products ranging from the ArtPro/PackEdge/Deskpack/ArtiosCAD creative and design products all the way through to Rips and platesetters.

Kodak is the second biggest seller of flexo workflows (it claims to be number one in some European markets). It got into the flexo workflow and platesetter business with its acquisition of Creo in 2005, even before it started making its own flexo plates.

It offers two packaging specific versions of its established Prinergy workflow (developed over the past decade), called Prinergy Powerpack and Prinergy Evo Powerpack. It also offers colour management, screening and proofing technologies.

Grant Blewett, segment marketing manager for packaging in Europe, says that Kodak’s main marketing message is its high degree of automation. “We’re on our third generation of automation systems, where our competitors are only just introducing it.”

Fully automated workflows are still fairly novel for flexo packaging, Mr Blewett argues. They can handle all functions from website receipt of PDFs, through automatic sorting into job queues, error detection and correction/rejection, pauses for proofing and approval, plate layouts and outputs, with JDF job ticketing for future downstream functions such as setting up a press through to despatch. “It can be a completely hands-off sequence from the job coming in to the plate being exposed,” he points out. In the offset sector they call this lights-off pre-press.

Prinergy Powerpack is a fully automated modular workflow with a core built around the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE). The usual drag and drop style user interface is used with hot folders linked to templates, but with packaging-specific options. The Powerpack modifications concern flexo-specific trapping, distortions and screening. The automation part is called  Rules Based Automation Software. This lets you build up particular processing sequences, with automatic switching to alternative paths if something changes along the way. Files are stored, tracked and managed via a high level Oracle database that sits on top of the pre-press functionality.

The screening technology includes AM, Maxtone (flexo specific hybrid AM/FM) and Staccato, plus support for Hyperflex and DigiCap (on Kodak’s imagers only), Raster/Vector Scaling and ‘seamless screening.’

Naturally enough Kodak would like to sell you one of its platesetters, but it recognises that there are alternatives. So it can export 1-bit screened TIFF files that can be imported by simple ‘shooter’ processing servers on other makes of platesetter or imagesetter. Likewise the Kodak imagers can accept 1-bit TIFFs from third party front workflows. The DigiCap texture for dots is generated at this late stage, so it still works with third party processed files.

The Prinergy Powerpack Evo version is an entry level workflow that has all the flexo processing functions, but without the Oracle database to provide the full automation. However, it can be upgraded later. Mr Blewett says that most new users opt for the full Prinergy Powerpack from the outset, once they’ve seen the automation demonstrated. 

The Prinergy Powerpack versions are also part of Kodak’s Unified Workflow umbrella concept, which provides modules that work together to drive litho or flexo platesetters, and digital presses (such as its NexPress and Digimasters), its Approval proofer and Matchprint Virtual soft proof system, as well as its InSite suite of software including web to print, MIS and imposition. Pandora, a program for automatic step and repeat, handles nesting of images where necessary.

The company is also progressively rolling out ColorFlow, a new colour management technology that will eventually address all of its systems. This is a ‘colour relationship manager’ that’s intended to make it easier to match different presses and/or print processes (flexo to offset or digital, say), as well as monitor to proof or proof to final print.

Screen also has a flexo version of its Trueflow SE pre-press workflow. Trueflow SE Rite Flexo is primarily designed to drive its PlateRite FX platesetters. It generates the company’s new FlexoDot screens, an AM/FM that sounds broadly similar to Kodak’s Maxtone. It’s a fully automated PDF workflow with a hot folder and drag and drop user interface that’s claimed to be easy to learn. The company supplies a suite of pre-press programs that include its RiteControl SE factory-wide JDF manager, Trueflow Flatrunner JDF based job routing system, and RiteApprove web-based verified file delivery software that would be relevant to any printing company.

There’s also FlatWorker Flexo, a dedicated program that allows operators to create custom and regular impositions of the artwork on the plate. The operator can preview the image layout, create instructions and check the resin plate layout on a monitor with no need for manual operations. PageFit can position screened 1-bit TIFF data on plates, meaning that pre-processed and screened files can be imported from other workflows, most likely EskoArtwork.

If using a third party main workflow, Screen can supply Trueflow SE Rite Flexo, a stripped-down RIP to transfer their data to the PlateRite FX models. This can be upgraded later to the full Trueflow SE specification, so the company says it’s useful for companies making a start in flexo CtP who want to keep their options open for further growth.

Dalim is another player in the automated workflow game though unlike the others, it does not have its own film or plate imaging hardware — it’s a pure software developer. The Dalim Twist is an ‘open’ workflow that’s more modular than most: there are more than 100 tools, some general-purpose and a few suited to flexo. You only buy what you need.

Xanté, a Rip developer, has an entry level automated PDF workflow called Symphony Flexo, to drive its SpeedSetter 300/400 pair of red laser filmsetters. Based on the APPE software, it was updated last year to include new features including direct PDF preflighting. It’s aimed at small and mid-size flexo printers.

So far FujiFilm hasn’t said much about what will drive the laser engraving flexo platesetter it announced as a project at drupa 2008. However its offset platesetters and digital presses use its XMF workflow, so probably this will appear in the future flexo system too.

Digital proofing
For years Kodak’s Approval was the only dedicated digital flexo proofer around. Anyone who didn’t want that would use standard low cost inkjets (usually from the Epson Stylus Pro range) with dedicated proofing software.
Approval is getting on a bit, but it’s still unique in its sheer versatility. It can transfer images onto virtually any stock, including PET/PVC plastics, foils and metal as well as papers and cartonboard. It can create real spot colours, with real halftone screens, in the same lay-down order as the press. Nothing else can.

On the other hand it only works on cut sheets of material, in B3 and B2 maximum sizes. B3 ink sheets cost about £12 each and you may need a lot of them as some jobs need two sheets of some colours to achieve the spot results. The hardware units currently start about £40,000.

A couple of years ago Mimaki announced the UJF-605RII, a small format inkjet intended for proofing on unsupported flexo films, with a tension feed and vacuum bed, with UV curing so the inks will stick to them. The 2400 x 1200 dpi resolution is high enough to make a fair stab at reproducing actual flexo dots.

This printer is pricey at around £100,000, but its attraction compared with Approval is its automation, its ability to work on reels of standard material, and much lower costs of consumables: the ink costs a total of about £3 per square metre depending on coverage. With Approval you pay for a full sheet of each colour whether you use all of it or not.

In August Epson announced what looks like a sure winner. The Stylus Pro WT7900 inkjet is a version of its popular 24 inch wide reel-fed Stylus Pro 7900, specifically modified for flexible packaging proofs and models.
Projected price is about £7300 and European shipments are due around now.
(Epson is also looking very seriously at the Indian market for this printer.)
It uses Epson’s normal water-based UltraChrome inks plus a new opaque white, so it’s suitable for clear film. Although it can’t print on actual packaging film stocks (which Approval and the Mimaki can), it will work with a convincingly thin clear special film, supplied on rolls with a backing paper to support it through the printer.

Another printer with proofing potential is made by Roland Digital Group. Its 30-inch wide roll-fed VersaUV LEC-300 and the newer, faster LEC-330 are the lowest-cost UV-cured inkjets on the market, at about £40,000 and £45,000 respectively. They offer CMYK wide gamut inks plus opaque white, in widths up to 76.2 cm and resolution up to 1440 dpi. Contour cutting heads means they can also handle labels. The UV curing with low-temperature LED lamps means they’ll potentially print on standard flexo films. They have constant-tension reel-feeds and vacuum beds, so they can handle thin materials, though some might still need a paper support. EskoArtwork and GMG have been doing trials with these.

Software to drive these printers is also vital if they are to be colour-accurate contract proofers. Approval uses the Kodak Proofing Software, which can also be used to drive inkjets and so create ‘working’ proofs at stages where you don’t need expensive contract proofs.

Kodak also offers the Matchprint Inkjet Proofing System, for Epson and HP Designjet printers. This can work with most file types, but it offers a direct connection to its Prinergy pre-press workflow for automated proof generation. Both these proof programs have a common user interface.

EskoArtwork has proofing modules for its workflows, but stopped supporting Approval last year and is switching its focus to the Epson WT9700 in particular, though it’s also shown interest in the Roland. Its software drives the Mimaki UJF-605RII at York Reprographic.

German proofing software specialist GMG is active in the flexo market. Its FlexoProof XG is specifically geared to the flexo and packaging markets and creates colour-accurate halftone proofs from 1-bit TIFF output files. The proof simulates any kind of substrate structures and spot colours, the company says.

The GMG FlexoProof XG (Extended Gamut) module is an additional option can use the expanded colour gamut of Epson Stylus Pro x900 and HP Designjet Z3200 printers. This means that more spot colours can be simulated in a halftone proof.

GMG can also drive the Mimaki UJF-605 flatbed and UJF-605RII reel-to-reel inkjets. The company has also worked with Roland DG in the UK to experiment with driving the VersaUV LEC-300/330 models.

EFI’s Colorproof XF Rip is reasonably priced proofing software that’s well established in the offset proofing market and there is a gravure module too. Now it says it’s launching a flexo version, but hasn’t revealed many details yet. It seems probable that it will support the new Epson WT7900. There’s already a Spot Colour Option module that would be handy for packaging work.

Online approvals
Collaborative approval systems are growing in importance, as they cut out a lot of waiting time. It’s getting easier to set up virtual meetings where all interested parties can review proofs and provide inputs. You can get into this for next to nothing courtesy of Adobe. Its on-line Acrobat.com is a free hosted service that lets you register and then upload PDFs that can be stored for your own use or viewed and downloaded by other people. They don’t even need to be Acrobat.com members – they can just respond to an e-mail invitation. You can also collaborate in real time over the Internet or a local network, to share page views and send instant messages, or run videoconferences with sound and video between up to three people.

In the USA there are paid-for premium subscriptions either five or 20 people in the video-conference, but those aren’t yet available outside North America.
EskoArtwork’s new Suite 10 will eventually include two server-driven engines for this sort of work. Collaboration Engine 10 is an Internet based platform for collaboration, online review and approval, as well as project and data management. Dynamic Content Engine 10 offers collaboration and content management for ‘critical packaging design content,’ including text, bar codes, and nutrition tables. The bits the lawyers notice, mainly.

If you need more than Adobe.com, Dalim offers the more print-specialist ES system for on-line collaboration, with more management features. This sits on top of Dalim’s Dialogue ES system, a new version of its established Dialogue soft proof server system for Mac OS X. This incorporates ‘packaging’ features in the form of rotation and varnish simulation, but this is more relevant for folding carton than flexible work. Additional options allow for full-resolution, colour-accurate soft proofing allowing the checking of separations, max ink, and density.

This can be set up to be very colour accurate (it has a Fogra certificate for this), but you’ll need to set it up with a viewing booth, ambient lighting, expensive monitor, measurement device, driving software (calibration and profiling) Dialogue itself at the pre-press end.

Kodak offers the Matchprint Virtual system, an expensive and very high end system that, like Dialogue, can be set up to be very accurate indeed, but likewise it needs exacting viewing conditions as well as a top quality monitor.
Screen’s pre-press suite includes RiteApprove, a combined online job submission, remote proofing and approval solution for its Trueflow SE workflows, including the Flexo edition.

The trouble is that the only truly colour accurate monitors that you can  trust for contract proofs cost a fortune – Eizo and NEC models are generally recommended and they’ll cost from £1000 up to £3000. LaCie are a slightly cheaper alternative that are pretty good too. Whatever you use needs to be calibrated and verified regularly, and who’s going to be in charge of that? It’s probably more realistic to use soft proofing for ‘good-enough’ work-in-progress checking, in conjunction with hard copy proofs for the real colour-critical sign-off stage.

There’s a variation of soft proofing for 3D viewing of folding packaging, though it doesn’t particularly cover flexible packaging yet. EskoArtwork offers Visualizer, which can rotate simulate packs on-screen in front of a representative backdrop photograph (say a supermarket shelf). Controllable lighting simulation as the pack is rotated predicts the reflective effect of varnish layers, metallics and foil that would normally be invisible on a flat 2D proof. FFEI has also just announced RealPro - 3D Packager, a similar 3D previewer.

MIS and JDF
Management information systems have come along way since their roots as the first computer estimating programs of the late 1970s. Today they virtually run the complete factory, keeping track of costs, planning schedules, and even re-ordering consumables automatically. They gather data directly from production machinery by direct machine interfaces or by JDF’s feedback format, called JMF. They can also capture data from keypads or wireless bar-code readers used by staff and operators and they book out paper, ink and so on from the warehouse.

Apart from direct costing with can be passed to an accounts system or used to improve the predictions of the estimates for next time, the information can be valuable for wider business analysis including the identification of trends such as high or low margin sectors or the value added by certain services or processes - in management-speak these are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

This means that the MIS can complement the theme of automated pre-press workflows. Particularly when JDF job ticketing is used, then an MIS can generate a ticket that’s in effect an electronic job bag that can be passed through the workflow and even set it up automatically.

There’s a large number of MIS developers that have sprung up to serve the offset sector, although relatively few actively promote themselves for flexo work. In Europe a lot of flexo companies have developed their own bespoke systems, or adapted standard MIS systems to do the job.

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