Hamillroad and Asahi Photoproducts announce strategic partnership

Flexo Solutions

International pre-press company Hamillroad Software has announced a new partnership with Asahi Photoproducts, a leading pioneer in the development of photopolymer flexo printing plates. The partnership is set to satisfy growing global demand from brand owners, trade shops, printers and converters for a more environmentally friendly ‘water wash’ plate making process that delivers outstanding image reproduction.

Andy Cave, Hamillroad’s CEO, said: ‘Hamillroad is delighted to announce our strategic partnership with Asahi Photoproducts. We were thrilled to discover how closely aligned our strategies for the future of flexo were when we first engaged, and we are excited to see how our partnership can support the industry in the move towards a more sustainable manufacturing process with fixed palette CMYK and ECG printing.’

Brand owners are looking to reduce their carbon footprint and are taking a closer look at production practices including the reduction of harmful solvents and greenhouse gases. The combination of Asahi’s move to ‘Solvent Zero’, and Bellissima’s ability to enable fixed palette CMYK and ECG printing, offers the flexo market a strategic opportunity to drive down the consumption of harmful solvents and greenhouse gasses whilst driving efficiencies by accelerating the production process. Sustainability benefits can be achieved through the elimination of press wash ups when switching to a standardised ink set and replacing the use of solvent with water in the platemaking process.

Jane Petrucci, Hamillroad’s head of marketing, said: ‘The first step in our partnership was to evaluate the Asahi AWP CleanPrint water wash plate for narrow web use with Bellissima DMS and we are thrilled with the results!

‘Hamillroad’s stringent and thorough plate qualification process demonstrated the Asahi plate to be of the highest quality, and in complete synergy with our aim to provide innovative flexo solutions to reduce waste and environmental impact. We anticipate significant interest from brand owners, trade shops, printers and converters looking to align their packaging production processes with greener, more efficient and lean manufacturing practises.’

‘We first engaged with Hamillroad as a result of an Asahi customer who wanted to use the screening technology with our plates but could not. That inspired us to pursue the Hamillroad plate qualification program, which validated that we could deliver even better quality by making this screening technology available with our CleanPrint plates,’ said Dieter Niederstadt, Asahi’s director of technical marketing. ‘By implementing Bellessima DMS screening with Asahi AWP CleanPrint plates, flexographic operations can take their production to a new level of quality and productivity. In addition, with our Solvent Zero approach, they can also reduce their carbon footprint and take advantage of the carbon neutral status we have achieved in order to facilitate calculation of their Scope 3 emissions.’

For more information about the new partnership opportunities, head over to the Asahi Photoproducts stand 5A34 at Labelexpo2023, where representatives will be on hand to answer questions and talk about the benefits of the combined technologies. You can also visit Hamillroad Software on stand 11B25.