Fujifilm North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division, has introduced Clarity, a new line of water-washable flexo plates. The new plates are designed for high print quality at fast production times, while lowering cost-in-use compared to thermal, solvent or other water-wash technology.

Brady Corporation transitioned to Clarity water washable flexo plates in 2013 after running extensive plate trials. “We are always looking for ways to improve our productivity and efficiency in order to best serve our customers, and after representatives from Fujifilm visited us and installed the new Clarity plates, we received a lot of positive feedback from our press operators who were impressed with the quality, fast production time, durability and ease of clean-up,” says Theresa Narveson, manufacturing engineer, Brady Corporation.

Clarity, which is compatible with Brady’s current CTP imaging equipment, reduces platemaking processing time to less than 40 minutes, 300 percent faster than leading solvent systems and 1.5 times faster than current thermal and water technologies, the company says. “Faster platemaking means more time on press and a dramatic increase in output per shift, while freeing printers to redeploy labor costs to more value-added activities.”

Clarity’s water wash chemistry delivers long runs while producing a consistent 200 lpi at 4,400 dpi, 1 percent process dot structure for print quality.  “With Clarity, we are able to reduce our processing time and use the plates longer than our previous plates,” adds Narveson.  “Our print quality is improved and our productivity is up. It’s a winning combination that enables us to better serve our customers,” she concludes.