Flexo has come a long way since John Robinson, president of Artcraft Label Inc., Burlington, Ontario had his first taste of what he called in 1981, a process that looked like something on the dark side of the moon. And so has Artcraft Label which recently purchased a Nilpeter FB 3300 press and is now installing a CTP prepress system. The printing awards in the company's front lobby are testimony to both.

Getting his start in the litho industry, Robinson eventually turned to sales where he began receiving requests for pressure sensitive labels. He sourced a supplier for his customer and went to watch a three-colour label being printed roll-to-roll, die cut on a four-colour Mark Andy press. "I wondered to myself how far this type of printing would go," recalls Robinson.

Press Operator, Remy Pravato and Mitch Whatford, general manager/ R&D show a job being run on Artcraft Label's recently installed Nilpeter FB 3300 eight-colour, 13 ½ inch UV press.

As his label sales started to slip away, Robinson heard that Artcraft Label, founded in 1977 by Bill Hillis, an ex-salesman for the Necco Label Company in Burlington, was up for sale. He and his wife Edna (secretary/treasurer) bought the company in 1986 and have steadily moved it from a plant that produced "stickers" to a prime label printing manufacturer. The company also does substantial business with credit card companies, making the peeloff strips notifying customers to activate their new cards.

The eight-colour Nilpeter with cold foil is the first UV press for Artcraft Label. The 13 1/2 inch press complements the company's Rotopress (now owned by Nilpeter) which is the same size and also has eight stations. Although the new press has allowed Artcraft Label to make further inroads into the prime label market, allowing the firm to capture additional customers in wine and specialty foods sectors, the Rotopress is also an award winner. Between the two presses with the expertise of press operators Rueben Krushelnicki and Remy Pravato, they won five printing awards in the 2007 International Gallery of Superb Printing announced in October. Gold, silver and bronze Competing against global entries, Artcraft Label won Gold and Silver for two group entries for Kurtz Orchards Foods Inc., a Silver and Bronze for wine labels produced for Legends Estates Winery and a Bronze for a Canited International Supplement Security label.

The labels for the Kurtz Orchards Foods Inc. Jam jars received the Gold, according to Eddie Wilson, account manager, because of the colour continuity of the illustration throughout the run. Niagara-on-the-Lake artist, Angie Strauss, produced an original oil painting of an impressionistic flower market, with different colours to complement the hues of the different jams.
"The printed label accurately represents the colours and characteristics of the painting which is run four-colour process with two spots and a laminate. We also designed a die cut tab at the bottom of the label for the product name so that it would not take away from the painting. All of the Kurtz Culinary Creation line of jams feature the work of Niagara-on-the-Lake artists."

Learning digital lessons … Peter David Lewis, technical sales support, EskoArtwork gives Artcraft Label employees instruction on the new EskoArtwork DeskPack and the CDI 2530. Artcraft Label is the first installation in Canada for the Cosmolight waterwash digital plates. From the left are Stacey Turner, graphic artist; Lewis; Lynda Panter, graphic artist/prepress and Bill Van Caulart, quality manager.

New in prepress
The company has completed installation of an EskoArtwork DeskPack workflow system and the EskoArtwork Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) Spark 2530. Artcraft Label chose the EskoArtwork workflow system as it was the easiest to adapt to the company's current workflow, with plug-ins for design programs already being used. DeskPack turns Adobe Illustrator CS into a full-fledged design and prepress production tool. "Workflow efficiency is greatly improved, and we can provide colour accurate mock ups and digital proofs so important for wine, health and beauty products," says General Manager, Mitch Whatford.

Artcraft Label continues to use Cosmolight water-wash flexo plates, but the digital version. This is the first digital water-wash flexo plate installation in North America. The plate features an aluminum-based ablative layer that washes out in tap water to simplify plate processing. Production time is cut to 30 minutes. "Doing away with film and processing chemicals benefits both the environment and our employees," says Robinson. "This new advanced technology is setting the bar even higher as we again push the envelope which rewards us with new business."
Whatford says that the CTP plates will provide enhanced registration with finer dots at 175 line screen. "With the Nilpeter press and the digital plates, we will be able to do near dead fit jobs. While the Roto and Webtron presses are still excellent machines, we will be able to maintain tighter registration and higher quality at much higher press speeds."

Key to productivity at Artcraft Label is automation. An example of this is the Label Traxx software, a print business management program from Tailored Solutions, designed for label manufacturers and flexographic printers. The software program generates estimates that are carried forward to the job, and invoicing is accurate and timely.