With competence and innovative capacity, all customer requirements are fulfilled
Founded in the year 1932, the Swedish Miller Graphics Group ranks today amongst the leading European prepress service providers in flexo and packaging printing and is the number one provider in the European corrugated printing industry. Over the decades, Miller Graphics has steadily grown, either by acquisitions or by establishing new sites .The latest branches were opened in 2014, in Ireland and Algeria. Nowadays, about 430 employees generate a turnover of ca. 50 million Euros. As a member of the family owned business, O.F Ahlmark & Co, the company puts particular importance on sustainability, environmental protection and equal opportunities for all employees. With a specially designed environ¬mental programme, the requirements of ISO 14000 are far exceeded. All staff members are aware of their responsibilities and work continuously to reduce the environmental footprint.
Miller Graphics serves two large customer segments, brand owners and printers. Thereby, it is very important to maintain the right balance between these groups and to meet all customer requirements. Especially in recent years, demands have significantly grown - on the basis of its expertise Miller Graphics can take the role as a connective link between both areas. Thus, on the one hand brand owners are served, who offer packaging for food, frozen food, biscuits, pastry, sweets etc., very fast moving consumables, which must be presented with very eye-catching results in the supermarket to attract the consumers' attention. Amongst the second customer group, rank companies who print corrugated, labels and flexible packaging. With a large number of highly skilled experts, Miller Graphics is in the position to meet every graphical demand and to have an answer to nearly every question.
It's a declared objective of Miller Graphics to be the preferred supplier of flexo printing plates and sleeves. In order to meet this requirement, the company has established several competence centres, where in-depth research work is conducted. The competence centre in the Swedish city, Sunne, especially deals with Flint Group's nyloflex® NExT technology. This exposure technology utilises a high intensity UV-A LED light source to conduct rapid crosslinking of the photopolymer surface before oxygen inhibition can occur, resulting in a virtual 1:1 image reproduction from the digital file to the finished plate. In flexible packaging, printing plates exposed with this technology allow excellent ink transfer, particularly in solids. Especially in corrugated printing, fluting will considerably be reduced.
"We have some quite good reasons to utilise nyloflex® NExT technology", says Mikael Eriksson, Managing Director Miller Graphics Scandinavia. „One of them is that it is a generic system, which is neither limited to a special type of plate nor to a specific plate size. Additionally, the plate production is much easier compared with other systems. This technology is fast as well as environmentally- and user-friendly. All of these reasons made it easy for us to come to a decision".
As a long-standing customer, Miller Graphics utilises several Flint Group products – from rotec® sleeves to different nyloflex® plate types. Now, the plate, nyloflex® NEF Digital, has been specifically designed for the efficient creation of flat top dots and the excellent reproduction of surface screenings. This new printing plate shows an outstanding quality in the highlight areas. It allows for a reduced bump-up, hence increasing the image contrast. The ink lay-down can be significantly improved, and a high solid ink density can be achieved when surface screens are applied. The result is a brilliant print performance on film, foil and coated paper substrates. "nyloflex® NEF is the first printing plate, which has been especially designed for the nyloflex® NExT Exposure, and of course we tested this plate in our competence centre", says Mikael Eriksson. „The results are promising. We notice, that the plate reacts very precisely on the emitted light, and it is very durable and consistent during long runs".
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