Whichever way we view the future, power availability will be a critical limiting factor for the manufacturing sector. Solutions are being explored and they include fossil fuel powered generators, inverters, solar and wind generators. The team at Polyflex has also researched the benefits of Extended Colour Gamut printing in improving productivity during times of loadshedding or power shortages.
It is useful at this stage to look at the basic principles of ECG (Extended Colour Gamut), which is the most widely accepted form of limited gamut flexo printing. The Polyflex team says that, by using a single standard ink set, a printer can effectively simulate a wide number of spot colours. It is accepted that the colours in the standard set that give the widest colour spectrum are CMYKOGV (cyan, magenta, yellow, orange, green, violet and black). In doing this, various cost savings can come into play, without compromising a brand’s visual impact.
Flexo press utilisation can be categorised into set up, cleaning and production. The profitable performance of a flexo press depends on minimising set up and cleaning, thus maximising production. In a busy packaging flexo press room, it is not unusual to find the average amount of productive time in a 16 hour timeframe to only be 9 hours. When loadshedding level 6 is at play, this reduces production time by 6 hours, bringing it down to 3 hours.
While many printers are struggling with this scenario at present, ECG has been proven to reduce set up and cleaning time, and Polyflex’s analysis shows that it has increased the productive time in level 6 to 6 hours. In the case of loadshedding level 4, the potential loss of 9 productive hours is avoided and productive hours improve to 8 hours.
Apart from this significant benefit in productivity gains, does ECG offer sufficient benefits and advantages to warrant the amount of interest that is being created around it? Would the adoption of ECG meet the current disruptive influences? To answer this, we can assess the advantages of ECG against these demands:
1. Brand owners want smaller orders due to pressure on consumers. ECG lowers MOQ’s as it reduces setup costs and the number of printing plates, thus making the reduced packaging order size profitable for the converter.
2. There are environmentally conscious consumers as well as new environmental regulations: ECG reduces the necessary ink film thickness and thereby a reduction in ink weight.
3. Material scarcity and cost creep due to supply chain disruption: by avoiding the need to wash up the (often) 8 colour stations after each print run, we see a significant reduction in ink that is returned as “press returns” or is discarded, as well as packaging material waste.
4. Flexibility in brand variant and order: this can be more easily met and with less wear and tear on press and parts, along with the points mentioned above.
5. Limited availability of productive time due to loadshedding and fewer productive hours: An increase in production time coupled with an increase in flexibility – an ECG press allows for the same productivity as there would be if there is no loadshedding.
Contact a Polyflex representative for a detailed analysis of the benefits of ECG.