The March edition of the GravurExchange
Your source for news and events!
Lou DeFlaviis GAA Chair 2019-2022: Gives his farewell words of wisdom.
Lou DeFlaviis GAA Chair 2019-2022:
Gives his farewell words of wisdom.
To my fellow colleagues:
I would like to thank everyone for the continued support of the AIMCAL organization. I also would like to thank Tony Donato for his unending support during the process, and as he continues to keep things moving forward… As we searched for a way to keep the Gravure association alive. It was important to choose the best fit, and merge with an organization that supports the process and supports the membership. It was a very difficult but rewarding experience, to combine the two organizations for continued support and growth of the Gravure process. AIMCAL was chosen as the most logical, as many of the current members at the time employed the gravure process.
I would like to also thank Chris Kerscher and the AIMCAL group, as he and the others were instrumental in the process of combining the two organizations. I also want to thank Phil Pimlott; without his help and knowledge we would not be where we are today and was extremely essential to putting the two organizations together.
The road has been long but rewarding. I have been involved with the PLGA and GAA for many years. It was in 2013 under the leadership of Phil Pimlott that both organizations joined forces and merged to strengthen and support the Gravure process. This led to the creation of the Gravure Association of the Americas. The consolidation of the two organizations was long overdue and necessary. In 2019 I took over the leadership role from Frank Passarelli, little did I know the COVID Pandemic was around the corner. The Pandemic put the GAA into survival mode and I appreciate all those who rallied to keep the Gravure Association alive for another day.
As we fast forward to today, it was recognized in 2020 that a strong partner was needed to keep the vision alive. When we spoke to AIMCAL it was evident that this organization utilizes the process and would be a great fit to keeping the Gravure vision and process alive and as of August 1st 2021 the GAA merged into AIMCAL and became the Gravure AIMCAL Alliance Committee.
Over the years I have had the pleasure of working together with many of the members. I would like to thank everyone for the past, present, and future support of the organization. As they say, time does fly. Wishing everyone the best!
I am planning to officially retire effective May 1, 2023 and start a new career.
Please be safe and be well.
Best wishes to all.
Lou DeFlaviis
Past GAA Chair:
Lou DeFlaviis
2019-2022
Gravure Track Coordinator for 2023 R2R
Todd Luman is the “Gravure Track” Coordinator for the 2023 R2R and he is asking to all who aspire to be a presenter at the R2R scheduled in October in the Gravure Committee track to start thinking about preparing an abstract. The “Call for Papers” announce will be issued soon by the Association for Roll-To-Roll Converters. The Gravure Track topics need to focused to “Printers” especially the gravure process. The presentation needs to be technically oriented and non-commercial. If you have questions please contact Todd Luman tluman@interprint.com and Tim Janes tjanes@rolltoroll.org
The “Call for Papers” is coming soon so start preparing to respond.
Jim Garvey the Gravure AIMCAL Alliance Committee Chair encourages all members to participate by joining a committee:
The association only exists through the participation of its members. The association has 7 other committees in addition to the GAA-Committee so there is no reason for any members employees involved in Printing/Converting not to find a committee that will be beneficial to them in knowledge and networking. Become active and join a committee!
Call for Papers for the 2023 R2R Conference;
There will be 6 tracks plus keynote speakers. The tracks are Web-Handling, Coating & Laminating, Gravure (Printing), Sustainability, Vacuum Coating and Market (Printed Electronics/Battery). Presentations are 25 minutes w/ 5 minutes Q & A.
Todd Luman is the “Gravure Track” Coordinator for the 2023 R2R and he is asking to all who aspire to be a presenter at the R2R scheduled in October in the Gravure Committee track to start thinking about preparing an abstract. The Gravure Track topics need to focused to “Printers” especially the gravure process. The presentation needs to be technically oriented and non-commercial. If you have questions, please contact Todd Luman tluman@interprint.com and Tim Janes tjanes@rolltoroll.org
Announcements
May 16th-18th ,2023
The Spring Conference has been rebranded to be the
“Business Summit”
with a theme of
“Innovation & Design”
Being held in Greenville, SC
For the Latest Member News go to:
And send your member news to be featured on the association website and Converting Quarterly website. Login and use our quick Member News Submission Form.
For the Latest Member Announcements go to:
R2R 2023 Going to Milwaukee WI October 2-5
https://www.rolltoroll.org/2023-r2r-usa-conference
Read article concerning the 2023 R2R USA
For upcoming Roll-to-Roll Industry Events go to:
Our industry event calendar includes all events. To view the Association for Roll-to-Roll Converters conferences & events, they are listed on the right side of this page. Or you can scroll over “Conference & Events” at the top of the website page.
March Technology Featured Article
Guest Author:
Alan Rogers
Polymount USA
Alan Rogers introduced the “Film Cleaner” machine at the 2021 R2R in the Gravure Track and the following article from Alan Rogers explains the “Film Cleaner” has truly helped those concern with sustainability and reducing printed film wastes from water or solvent based ink as it has been adapted by more printer/converters.
In today’s post-pandemic world, plastic prices have skyrocketed and printers are looking for new ways to reduce waste to offset these higher prices. In addition, most converters are busier than they have ever been so the increase in production also increases their waste numbers. Sustainability has become a very important aspect of our global society and printers today are working to reduce their carbon footprint, reduce waste, and recycle more than ever. However, no matter how hard we work on our sustainability program, there always seems to be leftover waste in the form of plastics that prevent you from achieving your goals. One of the biggest areas of waste for flexible packaging printers is make-ready film. Setting up a job can be costly, especially when several thousand feet of the film is used to match color and registration and then sent to the corner to collect dust after set-up is complete.
Once color and registration are in check, the job is run and the start-up material goes to waste as it can no longer be used due to the ink and mis-prints on the film. But what if you could re-use that film?
What if there were a way to “erase” the ink so you could set-up another job with the same film? Even if you don’t want to re-use the “clean” film for additional start-ups, you can choose to recycle it instead. Clean film with no ink will obtain a higher resale value compared to printed film.
Some converters are choosing a third option, which enables them to save money and eliminate their waste 100%. After cleaning the ink off of the film, they are re-granulating it back into pellets and adding it to virgin pellets when extruding new film.
This allows them to be 100% sustainable when it comes to managing their plastics inside their plant. How is this possible? Polymount International, creators of reusable solutions, has developed the first machine that can remove ink from your printed film. Instead of ending up with thousands, even millions of pounds of waste, the Polymount “Film Cleaner” removes the ink from printed film at a rate of as much as 100mteres/ minute and enables you to reuse your make-ready film over and over again! This machine is a gamechanger for the flexible packaging industry and will become a staple inside every converter in the next several years.
How does it work? It’s simple. The roll of printed film is guided through the machine via multiple loops and tension bars through a tank filled with a specialty developed Polywash cleaning liquid. Special microfiber brushes scrub the film, gently removing the ink. The pigment is filtered through a crossflow filtration system, dumping the dried pigment in a tote (recommend to run TCLP, the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP), which is used for determining whether a solid waste is a hazardous waste) and then the remaining Polywash liquid is pumped back into the machine for re-use. The last station is where the film is rinsed and dried with a patented technology, the end result is a roll of clean film which is ready for the next set-up, or re-granulated for re-extrusion.
As much as the film cleaner provides savings by re-using their film, many printers have taken the stand that the sustainability revolving around this machine is the more important message. Their message to their customers is we are a sustainable company and cleaning our make-ready film for re-use drives that message home, which is important to many CGC’s (Consumer Goods Companies) in today’s environment. Many sustainability programs cost money, whereas this one, saves money. With ROI’s less than a year in most cases, cleaning film for re-use reduces waste, saves money and allows printers to achieve their sustainability goals. A win-win-win situation!
Alan Rogers arogers@polymount-int.nl learn more Film Cleaner – Polymount (polymount-int.com)
Wisconsin Printing Industry Council Promotes: Label Producers Sustainability Webinar
APR’s Meet Preferred Guidance program can save label converters money and time on testing and get labels that enable plastic recycling to market quickly. With EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) legislation pending in many states, brands are asking for labels that are not detrimental to plastic recycling. The knowledge you will gain from this webinar is something you will want to add to your sustainability toolbox.
Please register for All About The Association of Plastic Recyclers’ Meets Preferred Guidance Program for Labels at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/647819485687348573
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar from TLMI (TLMI is the webinar organizer). GAA-Committee of the Association for Roll-To-Roll Converters is a supporter of the WI Printing Industry Council.
CCL-Label Charlotte NC hosted a tour for the Southern Piedmont Chapter 182 of SME on March 8th
SME always seeks manufacturing facilities to show their members the variety of products manufactured in their communities. 18 members and quests were dazzled at the technology and cleanliness they saw when touring CCL’s fleet of 18 roll to roll label presses. Before the tour, Evelyn Cruz the Director of Operations, presented a PPT where the attendees learned about CCL and its 204 worldwide facilities.
The PPT presentation was an overview explaining all the printing technologies that can be used by CCL in producing labels. There were sample flexo plates, a gravure cylinder, an Off-set plate and an imaged screen to illustrate the different ways the artwork was delivered to the substrates. The SME members all agreed CCL is a true manufacturer like any company making components.
Chapter 182 wants to thank Evelyn Cruz and Bradley Williams for being hosts and guides.
The March issue is available at SmallBiz@EPA March 2023 (mailchi.mp)
To ensure that the bulletin reaches your inbox each month we are asking that you add the ASBO email address, asbo@epa.gov, to your email contacts. This should alert your email software that this is from a trusted email contact and not an unwanted spam message.
The Online “Entry Level Technician” Course Available!
This course continues to be very popular with members and non-members. The ELT course contains 10 modules covering Pressroom Safety, Gravure Process Strengths and Distinctions, Gravure Market Segments, Print Station Components, Doctor Blades, Inks and best practices, Web Basics (Unwind-Splice-Outfeed), Web (Tension-Temperature-Treatments), Registration Fundamentals and Pre & Makeready practices. ELT also contains 13 recorded presentations from Gravure Seminars and conferences. All GAA-Committee online courses along with the Gravure textbooks are all available at www.aimcal.org, click on “Resources” tab, then pick “Products” from the dropdown. You will also see all the training courses and other products that are offered by AIMCAL.
The GAA Committee reviewed the plans for the Basic and Advanced Seminars and planning has started the seminars to be offered next year. The Basic and Advanced “live” Seminars will be held at Interprint in Pittsfield, MA in 2024.
Golden Cylinder Awards will be presented in 2024.
The next Golden Cylinder Awards presentation ceremony will be at the 2024 Business Summit. The entry forms will be available soon with the entry dead line of January 31st, 2024. In moving the awards to the “Business Meeting” did not allow enough time to hold a 2023 competition. We encourage all to participate as the prestige for the Golden Cylinder continues to grow.
Converting Quarterly, the official technical journal of AIMCAL, is a great source of information and current news from members and the industry. Go to https://www.convertingquarterly.com/ to subscribe to the quarterly print magazine, the digital edition, the weekly CQ eNews…or all three.
For all the news you may have missed, go to Archived News (aimcal.org)
If you are looking for new employees or are looking for employment, we encourage you to use the new resources on the AIMCAL website: (Jobs (aimcal.org). Members may post jobs at NO CHARGE. We invite you to see how easy it is to post jobs online today. To maximize your job posting, you should also post on the GAA website at Job Openings | Gravure Association of the Americas (gaa.org)
If you are looking for new employees or are looking for employment
We encourage you to use the new resources on the AIMCAL website: (Jobs (aimcal.org). Members may post jobs at NO CHARGE. We invite you to see how easy it is to post jobs online today. To maximize your job posting, you should also post on the GAA website at Job Openings | Gravure Association of the Americas (gaa.org)
Go to the following link to: Meet the Team | Association for Roll-to-Roll Converters
Anyone interested in having their company become a member of this dynamic
association of companies that are promoting the Gravure process,
please go to: Become a Member | Association for Roll-to-Roll Converters
Questions? contact Tim Janes, Member Outreach Director: tjanes@rolltoroll.org
If you an idea or article for the GravurExchange email them to Tony Donato tdoanto@gaa.org