Agfa has released the results reported by early adopters of its new XM (cross modulated) screening technology, :Sublima for Packaging. Packaging prepress companies and converters, both offset and flexo, reported notably higher quality printing with little change in prepress and press handling, as well as significant cost savings. The combination of these benefits, said users, give them a distinct competitive advantage.
Kris Vangeel, director of Agfa’s worldwide packaging business explained that with customers’ co-operation, as well as Clemson University in the USA., Agfa tested :Sublima for flexo and offset for a wide number of applications using a variety of substrates, including poly bags, corrugated, and a number of cardboard and label stocks. He said, "Having heard the excellent results from newspaper and commercial printers around the world we were more than confident :Sublima would perform equally well in packaging. But we needed confirmation from customers using it on real-life projects. They were amazed by how easy it is to improve quality and impress their customers."
Eticoll, a label printer in the Netherlands, found :Sublima so easy to use that the company installed the screening and went right into production. Marcel Smidt, Eticoll production director, said, "It’s remarkably easy. Once you define the :Sublima screen for a specific press, it just prints. Colours are richer and tints are perfect.".
Marek Skrzynski, director of graphics development at CSW, a packaging prepress firm in Ludlow, Massachusetts, said, ":Sublima enables flexo printers to attain resolution and tones reproductions that were previously thought impossible. In spite of the exceptionally high screen rulings, the anilox to screen ratio remains way below industry standard with :Sublima. Many converters were sceptical, but when they saw how little effort they needed to apply to achieve higher screen rulings with :Sublima, they became believers."
Agfa’s :Sublima uses a patented technology known as XM (Cross Modulated) to achieve line-screen rulings of up to 340lpi. It combines the benefits of AM (amplitude modulated) screening, which are smooth vignettes and highly controllable midtones, with the benefits of FM (frequency modulated) screening—fine detail rendering in shadows and highlights and continuous-tone like reproduction. It aligns FM dots along AM paths and replaces AM dots at the precise point where the AM dot can no longer be held on a specific press. The result is a smooth transition from one mode to the other with no visible crossover.
The :Sublima technology also takes press characteristics into account so that it will never produce a dot the press cannot hold claims Agfa. As a result, every detail, fine line, and delicate typeface gets printed without extra effort both on offset and flexo presses. Process tints, fine lines, even delicate typefaces print like solids using four-color process. Flesh tones are perfectly smooth and colour accurate.
Because :Sublima can hold the smallest dot on press, enlarging or reducing images have no effect on quality or the ability to sustain details. Sublima can be used for high line rulings on a wide variety of stocks, including high quality paper, corrugated, flexible packaging substrates, and various carton stocks.
