Zincografia Imen supplied printing plates to Scatolificio Ceriana for the box of wine of Italians company, making a decisive contribution to achieving the first prize at BestinFlexo 2018 in the category “Corrugated cardboard kraft post print”
Center at first sight! Certainly, the decision to participate in Atif competition that rewards the quality of flexographic printing was decided by Scatolificio Ceriana, but the collaboration of pre-press, Zincografia Imen located in Stallavena di Grezzana in the province of Verona, was decisive to get the first place. As stated by the jury’s motivation, “despite the difficulty of the kraft corrugated cardboard printing substrate, the black color of the bottles emerges very well; images with play of shadows (gray) that enhance image depth”. Definitely a good judgment that Imen brought home, a historic company in the panorama of Italian flexo industry, founded in 1962 by Ivano Perlini, still present today in the company, animated by the enthusiasm and spirit of a little boy, as his children Daniele and Giuliano confirm. They manage this small company together with their father, located a stone’s throw from Valpolicella, with its wonderful wine and therefore with a customer base of wineries interested in cardboard boxes.Today a dozen people work at Imen, including graphic design (with latest-generation Mac workstations all equipped with Hybrid software) and production, where workflow includes CtP, exposure units with the latest Flint nyloflex NExT Led Uv, automatic washing unit FV, plate mounting unit for plates for corrugated cardboard, which together with the large paper bags represent the core business of the company. “We are small, but always abreast of the times and we have followed all the technological evolution that has crossed our sector”, says Daniele Perlini, “for example we decided to discontinue the production of liquid photopolymer in 2006 when we introduced digital technology, since it was no longer suited to the growing quality requirements demanded by the market and we have faced this step within a month, to dedicate ourselves completely to high quality production”.
Technological solutions for high quality products
In the division of merits for the recent victory, an important part is to be ascribed to Flint products and technologies, as confirmed by Roberto Malagù of Heidelberg Italy, “with the installation of the nyloflex NExT FV exposure unit for the realization of flat top dot, they noted the great benefits of this exposure technology that allows precise reproduction of digital data on the printing plate.
This innovative approach sets new standards in the production of flexographic clichés and results in high print quality”, says Malagù. Quality is now one of the essential requests for most customers, increasingly equipped even from a technological point of view that allows them to measure printing results accurately and everything starts from the pre-press phases where the flexo service must be able to support the printer with calibrated proofs.
“It often happens to execute orders for multinational customers who have the same box printed by various printers in different countries, the uniformity of the final print result is fundamental, and we are very often involved in the start-up phases to provide technical support in the crucial phases”, says Giuliano Perlini.
The winning work: simple but with a great visual impact
Presented by Scatolificio Ceriana, winner last year of BestinShow 2017 award, the box that convinced the jury to award the first prize in the category “Corrugated Cardboard Kraft Post Print” represents a normal production job whose particularity laid in the fact that there was the need to bring out the lucidity of black wine bottles and the black label with a gold frame on an uncoated cardboard like kraft.
“The work was printed with four colors with the addition of metallic gold, but as there were several tone-on-tone elements there was a risk that some graphic elements would not stand out properly. In these cases, it is necessary to be able to create a black of the bottle that is much more intense in the darker points than the label, to bring out the reflections of the bottle. From a technical point of view, to achieve this we have inserted a chromatic reinforcement under the black to obtain a beautiful contrast. For those involved in this kind of job, it is certainly nothing new, but it guarantees a noticeable visual impact on the finished box and the consumer is undoubtedly attracted”, says Daniele Perlini.
Flint FAC D 284 plates with flat top dot
Zincografia Imen, user of different types of Flint Group printing plates, supplied Scatolificio Ceriana with the flexographic plates, model FAC D 284 exposed with LED technology to obtain the flat top dot. “It is not the case of Scatolificio Ceriana that prints with the latest generation technologies, but in general we have found that the validity of the flat top dot technology offers considerable advantages especially when you don’t use top-quality substrates or perhaps the printing machine is a little bit old. Even for a medium-small company such Zincografia Imen, adopting an innovative technology such as the Flint nyloflex NExT exposure unit can represent a very important leap in quality to the benefit of the final customers, the printers, who without having to change operating methods and printing equipments, can realize better quality jobs than in the past. “In the world of corrugated cardboard one of the great challenges is the reduction or elimination of washboarding, together with the increase in density and opacity. The multiple variations of exposure available with the NExT offer the possibility of controlling the profile of the relief and modifying it to better meet the needs of the printer, who must however know to use the flat top dot to regulate himself accordingly”, intervenes Malagù.
Future projects
With a view to continuous improvement, Zincografia Imen already has some projects related to new technological investments. Exactly for this reason, the expansion of the current headquarters is also expected soon, which should double the space. You must never stop, Daniele and Giuliano are well aware of it, also because they are encouraged daily by their father Ivano, who at 78 is the first to think about the future!
