Repro Busek Takes Flexo Quality to a New Level with the KODAK FLEXCEL NX System

Reinhard Deim, Sales Manager and Board member at Repro Busek, comments on the investment in Kodak flexo technology, “Brand owners and printers are astonished when I show them the flexographic print quality we’re achieving with the KODAK FLEXCEL NX System. It’s the biggest quality leap I’ve seen in more than 30 years in the profession. The FLEXCEL NX Plates give us results that rival gravure in every respect—and in many cases are superior.”

The quality leap Repro Busek is enjoying applies even with only four colors. The saturation of images is very impressive, and the high ink densities allow the gamut to be expanded significantly. Even with very fine screens such as 205lpi, it’s possible to reproduce the complete tonal range from 0.4 to 99.6 percent. This represents an excellent starting point for printing smooth vignettes and gradients with no ‘flexo break’ effect in the critical highlights.

“If quality is your primary concern, there’s no longer a valid reason to choose gravure,” Deim continues. “The FLEXCEL NX System matches up to gravure quality—and it’s often a very one-sided match in flexo’s favor.”

Awards underline increase in quality

Repro Busek has more than 40 years’ experience in prepress and platemaking. The company has won numerous awards in recent years for its high-quality products. A Matthews International company since 2003, Repro Busek’s role within the Group is to serve not only local markets, but also customers in central and southeast Europe.

In 2005, Repro Busek moved into new premises and invested in new technology for manufacturing continuous flexo sleeves. The company’s original client base mainly comprised printers, but today brand owners account for around half its total business. Repro Busek has also extended its service portfolio to include consulting, design development, and printing supervision.

Solutions for international brands

Broadening the range of services for brand owners is a collective aim throughout the Matthews Group, and Repro Busek plays a key role in this strategy, “We guarantee uniform branding, regardless of the printing process and substrate,” said Gyula Marlok, Managing Director. “The solutions we provide in this market are intended to help standardize the quality of even the most diverse products for brands worldwide.”

Repro Busek uses customer-specific online portals to integrate brand owners and their stakeholders in the workflow. This ensures data can be freely exchanged and reviewed, enables a job’s status to be tracked at any time, and ultimately creates shorter decision-making and production processes.

According to Marlok, the FLEXCEL NX System has become a cornerstone of the company’s success, helping to improve its relationships with existing customers and win new business. The FLEXCEL NX System was beta tested at Reproservice Eurodigital in Munich—another Matthews Group company—which eased Repro Busek’s path into the new platemaking technology.

Quality surge ‘like winning a Gold medal’

Repro Busek began preparations for the Kodak technology six months ahead of the installation in Vienna. “We started to align our workflow to the new imaging technology in early 2011,” said Marlok. “Previously the data was sent to Munich to make the plates, which were subsequently delivered direct to the customer.”