In a highly competitive industry where many businesses use the same processes and quote the similar prices, maximising the ROI of your print operation often comes down to the technology you use.
It’s all about having a printing operation that’s efficient, durable, adaptable, and — perhaps most importantly — sustainable.
For example, investing in a process that reduces carbon emissions by 25% will yield far more than its financial impact. Your corporate reputation, attractiveness as a potential employer, and brand recognition will all see a benefit.
Similarly, introducing automation and digital technologies will help to free up resources, allowing your machine operators to focus on more important tasks that add value and improve the customer experience. And while automation is nothing new, many businesses are coming up with new ways to put it into practice.
That’s not all — sustainable print technologies and processes will deliver more over a much longer period of time, leading to lower overall costs, less maintenance, and an increase in production capability.
Chances are that you’re already using flexographic printing. But what if we told you that by changing the sleeves you use you can increase your ROI and cut your costs significantly?
In this article, we’ll focus on a specific solution: our self-adhesive plate mounting sleeve — tesa® Twinlock — and how it helps printing operations to reduce costs, speed up production, cut energy waste, and deliver consistent ROI.
Unlike traditional mounted plate sleeves, our tesa® Twinlock self-adhesive sleeve requires no tape to mount. Simply clean its tacky surface and its properties are reactivated, making it ready to hold the next set of plates.
The concept of tesa® Twinlock is to provide sustainable and reusable plate mounting solutions for cost-efficient and consistently high-quality print jobs. The basis for the technology begins with the selection of a base sleeve or cylinder (from your preferred supplier). We then add a polyurethane (PU) foam layer to the top of the base sleeve. The PU foam is then coated with a unique polymer that makes the sleeve permanently tacky. This means that providing the sleeve is cleaned properly, there’s no limit to the amount of times tesa® Twinlock can be used.
Traditional flexographic printing sleeves are used to mount printing plates on to them. The printing plates are used to transfer ink and images to a substrate, such as paper or film, and are floated onto the air mandrel by using compressed air.
But while flexographic printing sleeves make it much easier and reduce the number of cylinders needed, there can be problems. For instance:
Unlike tesa® Twinlock, traditional printing sleeves need to be mounted and attached to the plate using appropriate tape. This leads to unnecessary costs that could have been avoided.
Flexographic printing sleeve mounting is highly dependent on the skill of the operator. With traditional sleeves, the process can take much longer; and with continued remounting, the process becomes increasingly error-prone.
After long press times, traditional sleeves can start to produce inaccurate and unreliable results. Bounciness (resonance effects or excitation which causes objects to vibrate) can also be an issue, leading to lower print quality and even potential damage to the printing system.
If you’re looking to increase the ROI of your print operation, tesa® Twinlock can help. Our adhesive plate mounting sleeves provide exceptional print quality. Even after long print runs and press times, the sleeves will continue to produce accurate and reliable results. This can be attributed to the open cell foam structure — it absorbs bouncing effects to improve quality.
The result is that you can print significantly more, faster. Your operators will spend far less time mounting sleeves and using tape, and instead benefit from a long-term, sustainable solution that delivers even higher print quality. The amount of skill required is also minimal, as the sleeves can be installed in just minutes.
Within a short period of time, the upfront cost of purchase and implementation will be eclipsed by the return on investment and cost savings due to faster speeds and higher production capability.
As well as improving quality and production, tesa® Twinlock self-adhesive plate mounting sleeves enhance process efficiency. As tesa® Twinlock self-adhesive plate mounting sleeves only need to be recoated (to preserve tackiness) when physical damage occurs, if you clean them and look after them properly, they can continue to work as normal. This means, in addition to lower running costs, less energy usage, faster ROI for repeats (no need to dismount and mount other sleeves for other prints), and more precise estimates for production costs.
And there’s one more benefit. With the money saved using tesa® Twinlock, the cost-savings can be passed on to your customers. You can continue to provide them with high-quality prints on their substrates at an affordable price.
For an accurate ROI calculation, contact your local tesa representative.
tesa® Twinlock is an incredibly flexible and cost-effective solution, but it won’t be right for every printer or situation. It works well when the graphics and material densities are consistent.
For other requirements, plate mounting tape still performs well — especially for different print runs or where graphics change.
However, many businesses now take a hybrid approach to their printing, combining digital print solutions with traditional flexography, allowing them to meet a diverse set of constantly changing customer requirements.
The future of printing is changing — and being prepared is essential. In our guide, Future Proof Your Print Business, we take a look at the state of print and innovation in 2021, including trends, practices, and new technologies that can help improve your ROI.