HighWater Designs sales director Peter Flynn said that the deal was great news for the Cheltenham-based company and that the collaboration started at last years Northprint exhibition.

Esko-Graphics came on stand and were extremely interested. They were looking for a four-up commercial internal drum machine. Its a market that Esko-Graphics knows very well, said Flynn.

Esko-Graphics will also unveil a computer to conventional plate (CTCP) platesetter at Drupa aimed at 2pp and 4pp printers.

Other CTP developments include a new 4pp polyester machine, the DPX4, and new optics for the CDI Advance flexo platesetter that doubles output speed to 8m2 per hour.
Esko-Graphics main thrust at Mays exhibition will be workflow and how printers can seamlessly integrate into their customers supply chains.

We are focused on the supply chain, not on individual elements we need to bring that to the customer, said Esko-Graphics pre-sident and chief executive Kim Graven-Nielsen.

It has launched Scope, an umbrella workflow concept that sits over the top of its existing FlowDrive and BackStage workflows for commercial, book, magazine and packaging print.

Scope includes JDF support and there are upgrades to FlowDrive, BackStage and other workflow components. One of the new tools is ArtiosCAD 3D Designer, which can wrap the graphics around 3D computer mock-ups of a package.

Story by Barney Cox