Visitors to Labelexpo Europe in Brussels on 11–14 September will experience the latest in environmentally friendly film production at the Graphic Republik stand no. A33 in Hall 9. The award-winning supplier of prepress solutions arrives at the event to celebrate 15 years of innovation with its digital film solution, Star Plate.
Graphic Republik’s main focus will be demonstrating how Star Plate’s digital films offer a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative to ageing laser imagesetters and chemical processors. The chemical process free technology is proven to speed up production and reduce costs by over 50%. In doing so, it enables printers to meet brand owners’ demands for faster delivery of more sustainable, high-quality labels and packaging.
“Ageing conventional systems are expensive to run and difficult to maintain. Spare parts are becoming harder to source and darkroom film and chemistry prices continue to rise. Star Plate is a far more efficient and greener solution, with customers reporting savings of over 50%, compared to traditional forms of film generation,” comments managing director Steve Donegan. “From an environmental standpoint, the removal of highly toxic chemicals in the production process allows printers to prove their commitment to both the brand owner and to the environment; it really is a win-win solution.”
Star Plate improves the process of film-making without a loss of quality or accuracy and delivers savings in prepress time and cost. It is ideal for making both negative films for use in flexo and letterpress platemaking and positive films for silk screen generation. It produces small text, fine lines and hard dots up to 175 lines per inch under daylight conditions, without the need for post-processing. Users also save considerable amounts of money, time and energy as it removes both the need to purchase and store chemical developer and fixer, and then dispose of those exhausted chemicals.
Donegan concludes, “Since founding Graphic Republik in 2008, we have developed a comprehensive portfolio of packaging prepress tools for the printing industry. Products such as Star Plate are unrivalled in terms of improved productivity, higher quality and an extremely competitive ROI. We couldn’t think of a better occasion to celebrate our 15th anniversary than Labelexpo Brussels. It’s the perfect opportunity to show the industry how our products can assist in reducing the environmental impact of platemaking and silk screen generation.”
