UK first for Contact Originators with double Esko investment

Packaging Solutions

Contact Originators has announced investment in a second Crystal XPS plate exposure solution from Esko, becoming the first company in the UK to house two of the machines.

The XPS Crystal 5080 optimally combines UV-LED main and back exposure of flexographic plates, avoiding warm up time and emitting consistent radiation to deliver highly consistent plates, for every digital plate type, at any time of the production day.

In addition to the XPS Crystal investment, the company has also signed a deal at a recent meeting at the Esko Itzehoe, Germany platemaking facility, to secure a Crystal CDI 5080 offering Contact a consolidated flexo platemaking workflow. The CDI and XPS combination enables the company to further reduce manual steps in the plate room, reduce plate waste and importantly, minimise operator time, further boosting overall business efficiency and customer service levels.

Nick Mitchell, general manager of Contact Originators, said: ‘We are totally focused at Contact on removing complexity through automation to benefit both our customers and our business operations. Our plate room is now at world class standards and the technology support from Esko has been second to none. We were delighted with our initial investment in XPS technology and this second investment commitment is testament to the plate quality and consistency we have experienced so far.’

James Mason, regional business manager EMEA North at Esko, commented: ‘The Esko CDI Crystal 5080 is designed to connect seamlessly with the XPS Crystal digital UV exposure device. Combining high resolution fibre laser imaging from the CDI Crystal with the patented back and front UV LED exposure from the XPS Crystal is producing digital flexo plates with unique reproducibility and quality. Contact’s customers have been delighted with the results of both our hardware and software innovations and we were, of course, pleased to sign on the dotted line in Germany, where we also demonstrated our latest technology development roadmaps to the Contact team.’