FUJIFILM North America Corporation today announced that its Graphic Systems Division exhibited a full portfolio of solutions for the flexographic printing industry at Labelexpo Americas 2012, taking place Sept. 11-13 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago, in booth 5621.

Underscoring the theme, “Fujifilm. Expect INNOVATION,” Fujifilm will impress label printers with demonstrations and displays of Fujifilm’s latest innovations including: new Fujifilm waterbase flexographic inks; the U.S. debut of the FLENEX DLE (Direct Laser Engraving) System; innovative UV flexo inks; the Acuity LED® 1600 wide format inkjet UV LED printer; software solutions; and reliable, high-quality press room supplies.

“Fujifilm is proud to be the broadest supplier to the packaging market with our breadth of solutions – everything from inks and sundry items to plates and inkjet systems – we offer everything needed for the flexo process,” said Tak Yanagawa, division president, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division. “We are constantly working to improve and expedite the printing process and drive innovation within our industry. Labelexpo gives us a great opportunity to show what we can offer all segments of package printing.”

Fujifilm will showcase the following products at this year’s Labelexpo Americas 2012:

• Waterbase flexographic inks – The new waterbase inks for paper and film substrates are low viscosity, pour-and-print inks that are easy to use, do not require additives prior to printing, and deliver more consistent results while reducing labor and time. They require less “on press” adjustments than predecessors and result in a strong color density.
• FLENEX DLE (Direct Laser Engraving) System – This revolutionary new solution for production of flexo printing plates achieves extremely high-quality image reproduction. Fujifilm’s FLENEX DLE system has been optimized as a quick, simple and eco-friendly way of making flexo plates. The truly innovative plate chemistry, in combination with the engraver, eliminates almost all labor and consumables required with current flexo plate systems. By eliminating most of the variables with conventional and other DLE systems, Flenex provides extremely repeatable and reliable accuracy from job to job. This is especially valuable for repeat jobs or for multi-facility operations needing to produce the same result now matter where the job is printed.
• Fujifilm UV flexo inks – These high gloss UV inks for flexographic printing are designed for use with all common substrates, including PET/G, PVC, Polystyrenes, PLA and others. Fujifilm SLV inks offer superb dot reproduction, strong color density, maintain crisp print definition, sharp copy and clean reverses without the gain typical of competitive flexo inks. SLV performs extremely well in all varieties of shrink applications as well.
• Acuity LED 1600 – The wide format inkjet UV-LED uses a proprietary design, patent-pending UV-LED ink curing system to produce exceptional quality labels and display graphics on roll or rigid substrates. It is an excellent solution for proofing and short run packaging applications. LED curing technology provides many benefits including lower energy consumption and longer lamp life in comparison to traditional metal halide UV curing technology. These benefits result in lower operating costs and reduced environmental impact, critical to staying competitive in today’s packaging industry.

Reaching print speeds up to 215 sq ft/hr while providing outstanding quality output, the Acuity LED 1600 offers best-in-class productivity and provides the capacity and capability to meet customer demand for shorter delivery times. The Acuity LED provides a standard 8-color ink set including CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta, white and clear, and allows printing white or clear ink in a single pass for even greater productivity. Spot clear ink adds special effects to create more unique packaging designs.
• Packaging Design and Software Solutions – There will be live demonstrations of RealPro which is a set of comprehensive packaging pre-press tools with plugins for Adobe Illustrator to include Preflight, Trapping, Step and Repeat. We will also be demonstrating RealVue 3D Packager, a complete 3D visualization tool for animated digital prototyping.
• Chemical, tapes and sundry items – A full range of pressroom supplies including TESA tape, chemicals, wipes and doctor blades that fulfill the breadth of the Fujifilm packaging solutions offering will also be featured.