'Round, 'Round, Get Around...

摘要

What hath computer-to-plate (CTP) wrought? Consider "in-the-round" imaging or ITR. The term refers to digitally imaged, continuous polymer printing sleeves that arguably are the future of flexography, and that already are opening up a number of attractive opportunities to printers and end users. Flexo sleeves provide excellent laydown of solid and metallic inks, while advances in flexo sleeve technology are yielding opportunities in markets traditionally dominated by other processes—paper or foil gift-wrap (rubber flexo or gravure), folding cartons (offset or gravure), and shrink sleeves (gravure).