With 30 locations across UK and Europe and over 900 employees , Adare is one of the major converters in the UK that played a key role as testimonial both in the promotion of GIDUE Digital Flexo™ technology and then also in the REVO Digital Flexo Revolution Project, as the first Company main testimonial that provided and validated the technology in practice.
Adare collaborates with organizations and leverages their core competences in order to provide end-to-end design and packaging solutions that protect and promote customer's products and services and enhance their Brands.
"As part of the Adare Group, a leading provider of Marketing and Secure Communication Solutions, at Adare Advantage we continue to innovate and develop our products enabling us to meet our client's needs, whilst staying ahead of the competition." commented Daragh Whelan, Technical Director at Adare Advantage.
Adare's mission is mainly focused around one concept: to push flexography beyond its current limitations and challenge digital as the main short run package print technology. Therefore they have been looking for the kind of technology that perfectly fitted their requirements.
The partnership with GIDUE officially started in 2012 when, thanks to the cooperation of GIDUE certified distributor in UK Global Print Service Ltd, they first approached to Digital Flexo™ technology. GIDUE Digital Flexo™ is an integrated system of revolutionary "digitised" technologies for the production of Labels and Packaging at the lowest operating costs and with the highest sustainability. It allows all press operations set up, production and quality control to be performed with no need for manual intervention from the operator, since every operation is fully digitally automated: a digital camera present on each print unit, named Print Tutor™, "reads" the print quality and substitutes the eyes of the operator, while 7 servo-motors substitute the fingers of the operator, digitally adjusting the print pressures and the register. This advanced technology provides consistent quality with shorter lead times.
Adare in the past had already put in place a digital workflow and had automated most of the pre-press tasks, but, by that way, a digital press seemed the natural progression for the medium runs and not for both short and long runs. So, when they approached GIDUE Digital Flexo™ Technology, they immediately understood that it perfectly fitted their needs and especially the theory that it is possible to print by numbers. Investing in the GIDUE M5 Digital Flexo™ press 530 mm width and 8 colours, meant that most of the press settings were digitised resulting in consistent performance.
"For Adare, Digital Flexo is not just a machine, but a process, and the High Definition is now standard practice on our site. With Digital Flexo HD quality we can rival gravure and litho, and we are only starting – this will get even better." said Mr. David Mills, Managing Director at Adare.
After the successful results achieved with the installation of the first M5 Digital Flexo press, Adare then decided to enter the flexible packaging market and invest in another GIDUE printing machine, a M5 Digital Flexo press 630mm width and 8 printing stations for Flexible Packaging. The fully servo driven press has excellent registration which allowed Adare to implement it with the REVO technology.
Adare plays an important role as partner in REVO project, which collects 8 industry leaders (AVT, Adare, Apex Group of Companies, Dupont, Esko, Flint Group, GIDUE and UPM Raflatac) that gathered to launch a complete UV Flexo package that allows conventional print to fight back against digital on short runs. REVO Technology uses UV Flexo Inks, Digital Automation "from pre-press to printing process" and extended colour gamut, that allows the achievement of repeatable and predictable PMS shades without changing Anilox and Inks. The most important benefits of REVO Technology are the repeatability and predictability of the printing results, short set-up times, less waste, total graphic flexibility to reproduce unlimited colours on the same job and fast change-overs that do not need any manual intervention from the operator.
"GIDUE's Digital Flexo™ Technology in combination with REVO Technology represents a revolutionary change for the market, similar to that of digital printing." quoted Daragh Whelan.
Adare's decision of investing in REVO technology is strictly linked to the new project related to Flexible Packaging, where the GIDUE M5 press is well recommended in order to provide high quality flexible packaging for short runs.
"Our client focused investments have enabled us to provide cost effective short to medium run flexible packaging, at exceptional print quality to rival the gravure process. Having a fully automated press allowed Adare to integrate a solvent-less laminator inline to reduce our lead times for flexible packaging. Our customers can also see the finished laminated product at press pass stage. With a state of the art studio and HD plate making in house we have produced new laminated flexible packaging products within a few days of receiving the new artwork." concluded Daragh Whelan.
