Welcome to our series of guest blogs from key flexo industry players. In this edition, Nilgun Turan, European Marketing Manager at Miraclon, discusses FTA Europe’s Diamond Awards and Miraclon’s commitment to innovation.

The virtual FTA Europe Diamond Awards: Celebrating innovation and success in challenging times

After a year of unprecedented disruption, we were excited to see our community in action at the virtual FTA Europe Diamond Awards. We’d like to share our congratulations with the organising team for delivering an event that, despite restrictions, enabled us to feel we were in the same room as other attendees.

The programme showed how, despite facing challenges linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, flexographers have continued to push the boundaries of flexographic print and future-proof their businesses. We’re pleased that, this year, we had the honour of sponsoring the Diamond Awards, which allowed us to connect with other vendors in the market and celebrate industry achievements.

Working with industry associations like the EFTA helps us to stay abreast of new developments and stay connected with the flexo industry. It also ensures that, together with other manufacturers, we can deliver flexographers all the components for a successful flexo platemaking facility.

As the flexo community continues to navigate and manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, print providers need to meet the demands for speed, find efficiencies when under pressure and look to standardise their processes. In the age of e-commerce, brands expect their designs to be in front of customers in short timeframes and buying behaviours continue to drive the need for shorter, more customised print runs.

As the packaging landscape is becoming more complex, with increased print demands and ongoing supply chain issues as a result of pandemic, an efficient and adaptable printing platform will enable printers to meet requirements profitably.

At Miraclon, we’re committed to innovation in flexo production and, built on a 13-year foundation of success, we’re enabling our customers to achieve superior quality output, increase productivity and lower production costs. KODAK FLEXCEL NX Solutions from Miraclon offers a range of benefits, including excellent on-press performance, reduced make-ready times, controlled ink transfer to optimise print efficiencies and the ability to produce brighter and cleaner colours, smoother transitions, a wider tonal range and an expanded colour gamut. As a result, the patented, award-winning technology has been acknowledged as having made a strong contribution to the flexo landscape.

We’re on an innovation journey with our customers and each advancement is built on the previous one, so customers can be confident that we’re supporting their business direction and growth. That’s why in 2018 we also launched the FLEXCEL NX Ultra Solution, which delivers all the benefits of the core FLEXCEL NX technology but in a solvent and VOC-free environment.

The past year has been tough for all but it has shown us the true resilience of the flexo industry. As we look ahead, although there’s less certainty around how businesses will continue to be impacted by global events, we’re confident that flexo technology can help printers cease new opportunities. We look forward to working with EFTA and connecting with the industry face-to-face next year.    

For more information please visit Miraclon’s website or send your questions to ask@miraclon.com.