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ULTRA-HD FLEXO PREPRESS AND PRINT SOLUTIONS
FOR BRANDS AND CONVERTERS

By Hamillroad Software

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MAKE AN IMPRESSION

WOW!

‘WOW’ is what people say when they see what Bellissima allows them to print in Flexo.

Bellissima is the next-generation of Flexographic screening that delivers Ultra HD print. Rivaling the quality of print typically associated with offset and gravure, Bellissima is challenging digital as the future for flexible packaging and labels.

Brand owners love that they can move products from Gravure to Flexo without compromising image fidelity while saving costs.

Printers love Bellissima as it allows them to reduce costs and go after new business opportunities that were previously unobtainable.


Bellissima delivers the ‘WOW’ factor - we decided to go 100% Bellissima from day one
Mark Cook, CEO, Catapult Print


BOLD BENEFITS

The client has reduced the time on press by one hour per job due to faster make-ready times and removed the waste caused by misregistration. The printer has quantified this to be a 30% reduction in costs per job.
Joan Rodriguez Cosano, Technical Director, FGS

The goal was to convert 32 brand spot colors to 4-color process to reduce printing costs. The result: the spot colors now converted to process appeared smooth and uniform. Our customer’s Product Manager commented: "Bellissima is the closest thing we have seen to continuous tone Flexo printing".
Ken Pavett, CEO, Flexografix

Using ECG helps us to reduce job set-up times, and the number of plate changes significantly. Using ECG alongside Bellissima, we can achieve constant print speeds and superior HD quality throughout the entire print run while also keeping make-ready time and waste to a minimum.
Gustavo Rebaque, Production Manager, Petropack



Reduce Costs

Ink, time, and waste

Increase Productivity

Increase uptime and maximise press utilization

New Business Opportunities

Rivaling the quality of print typically associated with offset and gravure, Bellissima is challenging digital as the future for flexible packaging and labels

PREPRESS WIZARDRY

Challenging job? Let the Bellissima Network take a look.

Brands are no longer restricted with design options for labels and packaging. We've helped achieve what was previously impossible with conventional Flexo screening. With Bellissima, the limit is with your imagination!


Smooth fades to zero

Printed highlight dots down to as low as 1.0%

No screen moiré

No angles = no clashes = no moiré

Exceptional shadow depth & details

Printed shadow dots up to 99.5%

Sharper reverse / tinted text

Reproduce fine text and details without degradation

Reduced repro (time & cost)

Less work is required in reprographics to touch-up files

Recreate smooth spot colors

Convert Brand Owner PMS colors with Fixed Palette / ECG


BELLISSIMA DMS

Ultra HD flexo – small elements are clearly defined

CONVENTIONAL FLEXO

BELLISSIMA DMS

Recreate flat tints moiré-free

CONVENTIONAL FLEXO

BELLISSIMA DMS

Sharp, legible small text & clean fine details with processed colors

CONVENTIONAL FLEXO

BELLISSIMA DMS

Smooth multi-color blends

CONVENTIONAL FLEXO

BELLISSIMA DMS

Fine elements and gradients

CONVENTIONAL FLEXO

BELLISSIMA DMS

Smooth 7 Color ECG printing with no degradation of fine details

CONVENTIONAL FLEXO

Images courtesy of Bellissima Network member Carl Ostermann Erben.

PRESSROOM OPTIMIZATION

The Bellissima Network of Reprographics experts is helping printers and converters to reduce costs and maximize efficiency in the pressroom.

Working with your regional network member, they can best advise you on how you can optimize your production while giving you additional benefits to explore new business opportunities.


We’re converting more jobs to expanded gamut; this is helping our converter customers reduce job setup times and waste – a typical example of this is from 2 hours, down to 20 minutes
Diego Zarlenga, General Manager, Fotograbados Lynch


Faster Make-Ready

Customers are impressed by the reduction in process costs – shorter setup times, coupled with increased productivity

No Color Shifts

The dots in one color interleave with the dots in another color, producing what we call a ‘stochastic rosette’ (US Patents 9,508,031 and 9,787,872). The interleaving eliminates color shifts caused by misregistration

Use Less Ink

Overall savings of approximately 10% of ink can be expected for typical production jobs compared to printing with a traditional AM screen

Longer Runs

2.5 million linear meters on one set of plates - Wide Web flexibles using solvent ink

FLEXIBILITY FOR ALL MARKETS

Label & Tag

The Bellissima Network is helping Flexographic Narrow Web Label & Tag printers achieve Offset quality with Flexo.

Label printers with both Digital and Flexo printing machines can maximize pressroom productivity. Bellissima gives them Ultra High-Definition Flexo quality (fidelity) comparable to Offset and Digital which allows them to manage production fluctuations without compromising the end product.

Flexible Packaging

Bellissima is helping Mid to Wide Web Flexible Packaging printers to compete with Rotogravure. Bellissima has demonstrated comparable image fidelity, allowing Brand Owners to confidently move product lines across to Flexo from Gravure.

Corrugated

  • Corrugated pre-print - available now
  • Corrugated post-print - coming soon


Label & Tag

Flexible Packaging

Corrugated

COMING SOON

GOOD FOR THE PLANET

Printed packaging often introduces a particular sustainability message to consumers by communicating how environmentally friendly the brand and product are; to be genuinely beneficial, the packaging must deliver more than a positive planet-friendly face and an eco badge of approval.

Looking closely at a product's packaging you will often see that a combination of process colors and spot colors are used.

The more spot colors used to print a job equates to more ink going into landfills, which means more processes and chemicals are required to recycle the packaging. In addition, the reality of print production is that more chemicals and solvents are required to wash up the press between production jobs where spot colors are used.

By adopting a CMYK + OGV (Expanded Color Gamut ECG) environment, you can run job after job, covering an expanded gamut, reducing the number and frequency of ink station wash-ups, thereby reducing the amount of chemicals used in the process.

CLICK TO LEARN ABOUT ECG


Land Juweel see this as a fantastic result as our production has reduced the use of inks and solvents to produce more environmentally friendly labels for the brand

Phillip Hitpaß, Manager at System Print

BRAND OWNER
BUY-IN

Increasingly, Brand Owners are looking to achieve the following:

  • Increase product sales
  • Reduce costs
  • Achieve sustainability targets

The Bellissima Network is successfully helping Global Brands and Private Label owners to achieve these goals both regionally and globally.

The Bellissima Network is currently engaged in multiple projects assisting brand owners to move product away from gravure to a more sustainable offering: Flexo.

In addition, brands are also looking at the environmentally-friendly benefits of ECG printing. To learn more about ECG, watch our video:




CONTACT US




System Print, Germany

Enhancing customer relationships following a successful switch to Bellissima


THE COMPANY

System Print was founded in 1991 by the Hitpaß family and has grown considerably due to its quick and flexible response to the market's demands and its second to none industry knowledge.

Today, System Print employs around 35 staff and works across various industries, including transport, cosmetics, shipping, and food.

Working across multiple markets, System Print provides a tailor-made label solution to meet its customer's needs. "The development of these relationships requires continuous investment in the latest production innovations, alongside a strong focus on quality assurance at every stage of the production process," explains Phillip Hitpaß, Manager at System Print.


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THE CHALLENGE

Historically, System Print worked with CMYK and multiple spot colors on their flexo printed labels; this was an area they looked to optimize.

"We were looking for a solution which would help improve the quality of our printing, while also addressing the market challenges facing us; this included the increasing requests for shorter run lengths while trying to produce less waste and achieve additional cost savings."

The introduction of Bellissima came from System Print's long-term reprographics supplier, Carl Ostermann Erben (COE). "We've worked with Torben Segelken at COE for many years; the COE team has a good understanding of our business needs. When Torben approached us with Bellissima print samples and presented the technology, we knew that this was something which would benefit our business and customers."

"We ran initial tests of Bellissima on press. The results were stunning – we achieved offset-like quality, exceptional fade to zeros, and could print fine-tinted and reverse text at tiny point sizes without any degradation. The tests rapidly progressed to production jobs, and we began to explore the technology further."

"The customer's needs dictate how productive we can be. If we can occupy a press with long runs, we are happy, but increasingly we see a trend to produce shorter runs; this has a negative knock-on effect for production as there's a lot of downtime during wash-ups. The team at COE offered support and suggested that we explore a project to reduce the number of spot colors used in the process."

"We considered one option of moving to Expanded Color Gamut (ECG) – this was something that COE had an excellent experience of and was confident in Bellissima's abilities to achieve ECG printing. Another option suggested was to explore the gamut of Bellissima with just our process CMYK. We considered this an exciting project and, if successful, would significantly reduce the costs involved in production."


THE RESULTS

System Print began a project with COE and one particular brand owner, Land Juweel, a family-run potato farming and packaging company based in The Netherlands.

Land Juweel was already benefitting from Bellissima's increased image fidelity; as Phillip explains, "Since we introduced Bellissima to our customers, they have been impressed with the uplift in quality. In particular, the sharper edges of their imagery are more vibrant, and the fine text and details are more legible, especially at small point sizes."

Hitpaß continues: "In the past, we needed to run jobs like this by using CMYK + 2 spot colors. We conducted preliminary tests to match the spot colors and were pleasantly surprised at the results with Bellissima; we achieved the target with a fixed palette of just CMYK. With Land Juweel's support, we now print its labels using just four colors. They see this as a fantastic result as our production has reduced the use of inks and solvents to produce more environmentally friendly labels for the brand."

"These positive results using Bellissima has enhanced our relationships with many customers - we look forward to continuing working with this level of quality for many years ahead," concludes Dimitri Jansen, Head of sales at System Print.


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Catapult Print, USA

Entering a new market with a 'wow' factor


THE COMPANY

In 2018 Catapult Print embarked on a new journey. Driven by a passion for setting new standards and expectations for quality, price, service, lead times, and innovation, Catapult propelled themselves into the U.S. market to deliver high-quality print in the self-adhesive, narrow web film and linerless labeling arena.

Founder and CEO, Mark Cook, comments on the vision: “at Catapult, we offer something unique to brands; we’ve dared to go where no flexo printer has gone before, we’re disrupting the current norm and accepted level of service, and challenging it.”

“The status quo is no longer a recognisable base, habits and trends are evolving; retail giants such as Amazon are entering the grocery space which, along with the explosion of retail’s own-label, means that it’s become a very competitive marketplace for everyone. Consumers are increasingly shopping online, resulting in fewer visits to grocery stores. Retailers everywhere are looking for the best way to attract these shoppers back into their stores and to keep them coming back. Quality, price, and innovation are at the heart of a very customer-centric approach to modern consumer needs. We witnessed this in the U.K. market ten years ago and now the change is happening in the U.S.”


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THE CHALLENGE

Entering a competitive market isn’t for the faint-hearted, from day one Mark and his team recognized the need to differentiate themselves.

“We set out to disrupt the market by offering the best quality, best price, best service, and best lead times. As a start-up, these were bold claims; we had to seek out technology and suppliers who could not only help us realize our claims, but deliver them daily” continues Cook.

Catapult offers retailers, brands, and manufacturers a print solution which facilitates showcasing of their own-label products to make them stand out on the shelf.


THE SOLUTION

“Researching the market, we considered the two key requirements of quality and price. To deliver exceptional quality, the team identified various technology solutions for print; we visited demo centers and looked at print samples. On one occasion when a colleague put a print sample in my hand, I thought he was showing me a lithographic print. The image detail was superb and when he told me that it was a narrow-web flexographic print sample my only thought was: ‘WOW!’”.

“Bellissima delivers the ‘WOW’ factor which grabs your attention immediately. Catapult wanted to offer its customers game-changing quality, and there it was - we decided to go 100% Bellissima from day one.”

Alongside Hamillroad Software’s Bellissima DMS, the infrastructure that supports Catapult’s full-service print offering includes prepress technologies; Esko CDI Spark, Vianord Evo 4, and MacDermid Graphics Solutions ITP 60 advanced photopolymer plates processed thermally with a LAVA system.

In the press room, four Nilpeter FA press sit, enhanced with Advanced Vision Technology (AVT) inspection systems, Apex GTT anilox, and INX low-migration inks.

“These combined technologies give us a transformative solution which enable us to deliver excellent print at an affordable price. Technology is at the heart of what we do and drives the efficiencies and savings that allow us to deliver at a higher speed and lower cost than our competitors.”


THE RESULTS

Working with our technology suppliers, Catapult took the time to fingerprint the press.

“Spending time getting things done correctly from the outset has set us up for success. We match the first time; there’s no downtime due to color shifts, no plate remakes, our make-ready is quick, material waste is low. We believe that this achievement is due to the combination of our partners’ involvement” says Cook.

“Bellissima is a game-changer; it allowed us to hit the ground running; it has given us the differentiator we needed to enter the market and win business. Brands love the quality and how it makes their product’s visibility stand out on the shelf. It’s the best screening in the market; it gives us the edge.”

We are passionate about print, we believe in Bellissima, and we are here to keep disrupting for the long-haul” concludes Cook.

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Petropack, Argentina

An Exciting Future with Bellissima


THE COMPANY

With more than 30 years of experience producing flexible packaging, Petropack is a family-run printing business based in Paraná, Argentina.

A key industry leader in packaging technology, Petropack prides itself on meeting high-capacity customer demands without compromising results. Petropack ensures that customers receive the best quality standards from initial engagement through to product output.

"We want to be the best at what we do, "says Gustavo Rebaque, Production Manager, Petropack. "One of our key philosophies is continuous investment in cutting-edge technology which guarantees our products meet customer needs."

"We recognize the importance of being a mission-critical business in the supply chain, responding to the ever-increasing and changing demands of the FMCG market, ultimately making us the number one choice for flexible packaging print in Argentina."


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THE CHALLENGE

Petropack sought a solution to complement its existing print production without needing to make a large capital investment. "Our main challenge was to match the quality produced by rotogravure, but at a lower price point and with shorter lead times by using flexo."

"We identified the need to be agile and remain competitive in our market to retain and win business; we had to improve productivity and process stability while not increasing costs - this always seemed unattainable to us." Comments Gustavo.


THE SOLUTION

"Working closely with our trusted suppliers, Fotograbados Lynch and MacDermid Graphics Solutions, we found the solution to our problem!" states Ariel Botti, Inks, Mounting and Planning manager, Petropack.

"In the past, we had experienced problems with high lpi screens; however, when Lynch and MacDermid presented us with an innovative solution in Bellissima (300-400lpi equivalent) on MacDermid Graphics Solution LUX ITP 60 plates, we immediately saw the potential to address the market demands of shorter runs while also reducing our costs."

The discovery of Bellissima was a breakthrough for the business. "We received print samples of Bellissima on wide web flexibles and recognized that we had found a technology in flexo that would allow us to rival that of gravure production. It would also allow us to utilize our existing fleet of flexo printing presses, making the adoption process easier and cheaper to implement without the need to invest in any additional or specialized equipment. It was very simple!” Concludes Ariel.


BRAND OWNER ACCEPTANCE

The outstanding result for Petropack was the positive feedback from their customers, both existing and new. Gustavo explains, "Once we started to show the brand owners the results, they were impressed. One particular brand owner had clear success criteria of objectives that had to be met – excellent fades to zero and the ability to hold fine details."

The brand owner and Petropack began a project to move a specific product line across from gravure to flexo. The project was a success and resulted in the brand owner agreeing to move additional SKUs across to flexo. "The customer was amazed at the results and happy that we could deliver the print faster than it would've been using gravure."


BUSINESS BENEFITS

"As a business, we focus on keeping customers satisfied while also managing costs and expectations. One of Bellissima's benefits has been that the plates are very stable and last for long-runs; this has had a noticeable impact on reducing our production waste and keeping costs to a minimum."

Additional benefits of switching jobs from gravure include reducing its chemical use, which helped Petropack further enhance its company values of respecting the community and the environment and improving its service offerings.

Petropack also discovered they could make use of Extended Colour Gamut (ECG). "Using ECG helps us to reduce job set-up times, and the number of plate changes significantly. Using ECG alongside Bellissima, we can achieve constant print speeds and superior HD quality throughout the entire print run while also keeping make-ready time and waste to a minimum," concludes Gustavo.

"Undoubtedly, the most outstanding benefit has been the growth we achieved since adopting Bellissima. The flexo quality we now produce for some of our longest-standing customers is unrivaled, and as a result, they have been more than happy to assign more projects to us."

The happy customers, coupled with the overall reductions in costs and the environmental benefits, have created a successful flexo offering for Petropack.

"We've not looked back. We have staked a part in the future of flexible packaging and lead the way in Argentina – it's an amazing position to be in; we are excited for the future opportunities working with Bellissima."


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Hamillroad Software
Created by Hamillroad Software, the Bellissima Network is a single forum that enables brand owners and printers to find Ultra HD and Expanded Color Gamut (ECG) Flexographic prepress and print services around the globe.