Flexo Italia, a photopolymer service for flexographic printing based in Corsico (MI) has chosen the path of sustainability, inserting a DuPont™ Cyrel® Fast 2000 TD plate production system, the thermal development technology thanks to which Carlo Betti’s company intends to grow BOTH IN NARROW-WEB LABEL MARKET AND IN the wide web flexible packaging, with an increasingly sustainable footprint
Carlo Betti, founder of Flexo Italia, a Flexographic prepress service with 15 operators and a technological park that represents the state of the art to produce flexo clichés, has very clear ideas. Few words, but many facts, today it is a nice, growing company that present iItself on the market with a great spirit of service, with an increasingly consultative approach towards customers, from brand owners to printers.
In the graphic industry sector, printing has always been a family tradition and quality is not an objective to be pursued, but a standard to be guaranteed.
In the last years, after moving his company to its current headquarters, Carlo has undertaken a grow path that has led him to invest in top-level production technologies and to reorganize all company departments, from administration to sales, to be ready to implement all the needs of the market, from small printers to important multinational brands who have chosen Flexo Italia as their privileged interlocutor.
“We work with our customer with a logic of partnership, we support them in all their needs. As regards the creation of the image for their packaging, we support them up until set-up in their press room, in an increasingly consultative perspective. In this way, we have the complete control of our work, from start to finish, and we can face any possible problems together or, in any case, support customers on particularly complex jobs”, begins Carlo Betti.
A winning and sustainable business model from the partnership with customers and suppliers
Being in continuous dialogue with its customers, Flexo Italia has accepted the increasingly pressing request of various companies to be able to improve the ecological footprint of their products, adopting increasingly greener processes and even expressly requesting photopolymers developed with Cyrel® Fast thermal technology.
Since it is always in step with innovations and today very attentive to a production that puts sustainability at the center of its business, Flexo Italia has chosen to invest in the new DuPont Fast 2000 TD to produce photopolymers with a thermal process, without the aid of solvents, both for the narrow web label sector and for flexible packaging
“We have welcomed the requests of our customers, also because they are perfectly in line with our sustainable development policies. As we work with DuPont as a strategic parter and as Cyrel® plates make up almost all our production, we have installed a solvent processing line from Vianord which is now complemented by a Cyrel® FAST thermal processing system”, says Carlo Betti, underlining furthermore that price is not the fundamental factor when offering a complete and reliable service, especially for historical customers, with whom there is a consolidated relationship of trust.
Increasingly fast also in flexible packaging
The collaborative relationship with DuPont has grown in the last period, with the installation of the new Cyrel® Fast 2000 TD, fully in production since the beginning of this year.
Flexo Italia has intensified the consultancy aspect towards printer customers looking continuously for high quality. Furthermore, let’s not forget that Flexo Italia was already equipped with a complete double line in the 127×203 format to produce solvent-based plates, which to date is used for almost all of the plates prepared by the company.
Since the company has just started to use thermal process, with excellent feedback from printers, Flexo Italia’s objective is to increase green technology by 15-20% of total production in the short term and to be prepared for a future when Cyrel® plates Fast will be fundamental.
“Customers who have printed with thermal plates have been favorably impressed by the printing performance and the quality of the final result in both the flexible packaging and label sectors”, adds Betti.
“Sometimes the transition from solvent technology to Fast can be viewed with skepticism by printers, who, in addition to the environmental advantage, must always guarantee the right technical and economic balance. More and more printers are placing emphasis on the sustainability and environmental impact of the products used: the Fast process allows them to use plates in line with their green expectations”, intervenes Riccardo Labianca, Area Manager DuPont™ Cyrel®.
“At Drupa, DuPont will present new materials, such as LED-optimized plates as well as the Cyrel® FAST workflow, completing the portfolio covering all three format (90×120, 106×152 and 127×203 cm). The larger format units are dedicated to the flexible packaging segment with high productivity”, adds Mario Castelli, Sales Manager Southern Europe and North Africa DuPont™ Cyrel®.
“We are satisfied with the results we had last year and 2024 has started in a positive way. Today we are fully operational in the Italian market”, Carlo Betti tells us again, “but considering the developing trend of the market, the technology we are implementing, and the skills we have acquired, both at a production, technical-commercial and management level, we are not closing the doors to possible growth on international markets”.
