It will be the first Drupa showing for the firm as an independent business. Miraclon was created after Kodak sold its flexo division in 2019, and Drupa 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic.
CEO Chris Payne told Printweek that he was proud of how Miraclon had handled the impact of Covid-19, and a variety of supply chain issues and inflationary pressures since.
“We managed to continually supply our customers during all the ups and downs, and we continued to install new systems,” he said.
Payne also noted that while Miraclon was able to absorb about 2% of cost increases, it had been necessary to put up prices a number of times, albeit under the rate of inflation.
“Economic issues, particularly inflation, have made us very pragmatic. Our innovation strategy is about helping our customers to drive efficiencies by being more efficient in the pressroom and driving sustainability,” he explained.
“The really good news is that as we entered 2024, we’ve got an equilibrium. The brands are going back to doing more new designs, which means more printing going on. We’re seeing that resurgence happening now.”
At Drupa Miraclon will highlight 12 case studies of packaging printers and brand clients where modern flexo has resulted in “major bottom line impact benefits”.
One example cited is a flexible packaging printer that switched from using multiple spot colours to Expanded Colour Gamut (ECG) printing using CMYK+white with Flexcel NX.
The benefits included an estimated $150,000 (£118k) per annum ink cost saving per press, as well as faster setups and printing speeds.
“There’s a lot of innovation in the flexo space, and when you’re running a press at 300m/minute you need a precision plate,” Payne noted.
He said Miraclon’s Flexcel NX plates were “a key enabler” of modern flexo and the firm collaborates with the R&D departments at a number of flexo press manufacturers to drive the technology forward.
CMO Emma Weston said the firm would bring nine innovations to the show, including the next generation Flexcel NX and NX Ultra plates and a new Shine LED lamp kit that promises “a simple cost-effective path to UV LED plate exposure”.
Weston described modern flexo as “a production state where printing is highly consistent and predictable – so much so you can enable printing by numbers.”
“Importantly, modern flexo offers visual parity with gravure, offset and digital print processes, offering maximum flexibility for printers and the brands that they serve.”
Miraclon is exhibiting in Hall 15 at Drupa, which is also home to flexo press manufacturer Windmöller & Hölscher and Komori, which offers specialist flexo presses via its Komori Chambon division. Koenig & Bauer and Bobst are located in nearby halls.
