Over time the nature of flexographic printing has become a more refined and precise method of rubber stamping. As it’s evolved, it’s become widely popular in the consumer product and the printing and packaging industries.
Typically, flexographic printing involves a polymer image carrier that is engraved to create the design for the label. These image carriers can include, cylinders, sleeves, and plates to achieve the desired look. The beauty of this type of printing is that it allows for a continuous process with high speeds and maintained accuracy.
However, as the demand for rendering high-resolution images for specific labels has grown, Digital printing has become a great option for smaller-volume jobs that are not required to be repeated over and over again. Currently, Century Packaging & Printing utilizes both digital and flexographic printing to meet customer needs and requirements.
Over the past 25 years of being in the printing industry, CP&P has invested in making its own plates, but with the evolution of the digital press, they no longer need as many plates as they used to. At one point, CP&P was heavily involved in the newspaper business with over 60% of their annual sales coming from this portion of the business. This meant that a large majority of their resources went toward the newspaper market.
One complexity of printing advertising labels for newspapers lies in the fact that they do not often repeat. This process is fundamentally built around a “one and done” thought process and need. After the plate is run once to create the label for the advertiser, it is no longer used again.
As the majority of our society has pivoted digitally to obtain their daily news sources, the number of front pages available for advertising labels has steadily declined. CP&P has adapted to this downturn in demand for advertising labels by pivoting to the food, beverage, and other key markets. They have also leveraged the power of their hybrid press, added in 2022, which has opened up their capacity in plate making.
At this time, CP&P is in a place in their business where they are excited to share the expertise they have accumulated over the last 25 years with other printers in need of a high-quality source of plates. CP&P has put in the time and effort to become distinguished in the plate-making domain.
A significant piece of their success stems from the contract work that was done with Carol Jones– a renowned expert in plate making. Carol worked at Clemson for over 32 years and taught in their graphic communications department. She specialized in Flexography and Electronic Prepress and was devoted to testing and research associated with printing processes and products. Due to their dedication and commitment to putting forth the highest standards, Ben and Neil contracted Carol’s help to strengthen their proficiency in plate making. She came in and standardized their current plate-making process with quality checks to ensure that the quality was not only up to CP&P’s specifications but also held up to high-standard industry specifications. As CP&P’s mastery and aptitude in the world of plate-making grew, they purchased new equipment and established new procedures that would differentiate them from other printers.
Another unique hallmark of CP&P’s plate-making process is that they do not use chemicals. As part of their continued commitment to excellence, CP&P remains clean and environmentally sound with a promise to reduce waste anywhere they can.
The team at CP&P is more than ready to share their knowledge with other printers in the area and will gladly be a resource to anyone who is on the search for a new plate manufacturer. Instead of relying on contracting out to plate-making companies who may not have the same standards as CP&P, Ben and Neil are working diligently on selling their plates to those who are looking for a new plate-making partner.