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As a modern full-service partner for the packaging industry, Scholler Packaging offers customised solutions to brand owners as well as retailers and printers. Founded more than 40 years ago in Nuremberg, Germany, the company has been part of Matthews since 2002, a worldwide operating group. Initially focused on the production of rubber plates for flexible packaging and zinc matrices and magnesium etching, it offers a complete service package to the customers, from design via repro to printing forms.

The co-operation between Scholler and Flint Group started about 25 years ago – at this time nyloprint printing plates for letterpress were delivered.

"In recent years, topics like HD, oxygen effect, flat top dots and micro structures etc have been very intensively discussed in the market,” states Ludwig Haas, Technical Director Scholler. "In the meantime, it’s a fact that with the available technologies, the so-called ‘oxygen effect’ shows several improvements to the printing process and thereby to the printing results too. However, one precondition for this is the appropriate adjustment in each press room”. That’s why Scholler showed interest in the nyloflex NExT exposure at a very early stage. After a series of tests, it decided, at the end of 2012, to install Flint Group Flexographic Products’ innovative exposure technology. One important aspect was the independence from other equipment or processes in the market intended to produce flat top dots.

"The unit has been very well integrated into our workflow; it operates perfectly. The exposure with LED bars allows a constant UV output, thus facilitating the reproduction of finest details. In particular, beneficial is the cooled exposure bed, which enables a fast UVA exposure and, as a consequence, a superb plate quality in terms of dimension, stability and floor,” summarises Ludwig Haas.

Since its market launch at the end of 2011, nyloflex NExT has been established globally and offers a range of advantages to the user. Especially for flexible packaging, printing plates exposed with this technology, enable excellent ink transfer, particularly in solids. In corrugated printing, a considerable reduction in fluting can be observed. nyloflex NExT technology provides improved reproduction quality and long-term stability. The exposure technology is applicable for all digital flexographic printing plates, regardless of plate thickness and format and can be easily implemented into the existing digital workflow. In contrast to most of the competitive technologies, there is no need for additional consumables.