A party of more than 50 students and lecturers from the Polygraphy Department of the local Technical University were invited to Mark Andy’s showroom and demonstration facility in Warsaw, Poland for a private tutorial session on labels and narrow web technology. This followed the recent and highly successful Open House which attracted converters from Europe and beyond, so the students could see the same extensive range of Mark Andy machines in action.

Welcoming the group, Area Sales Manager Lukasz Chruslinski explained Mark Andy’s activities in Poland and Europe, and why the company had chosen to locate its new European showroom and demonstration facility in Warsaw. He said, “We are delighted to have the opportunity of opening the doors of Mark Andy to Polish graphic arts students, some of whom have the potential to be our future employees.”

By way of introduction to labels and label printing technology, the students were given a short history lesson that traced the important stages from the simple hand printed beginnings in the 1700s to the sophisticated labels that are such an inherent and colourful part of packaging and retailing today. The presentation identified Mark Andy founder, Mark Andrews as one of the industry’s key pioneers, and briefly charted the development of the company from the 1950s.

The party was then given a guided tour of the showroom and shown each of the three Mark Andy presses and Rotoflex inspection rewinder in action.  Each press, a second-generation Performance Series P7 flexo platform, a Digital Series inkjet/flexo hybrid, and the toner based Digital One hybrid solution, were shown printing the same label so that a comparison could be made between the different print processes.

In preparation for the visit, the students had created a variety of their own labels so they could see the full process of production from initial design to the final printed label. The job included four-colour printing and die cutting. On the P7, two types of DuPont flexo plates were demonstrated, a Cyrel DPR, and a Cyrel EASY ESX, both with 175 lpi resolution, and supplied by Flexmar Repro House. The substrate was the same self-adhesive paper material for all three presses. The inks used on the P7 were Flint’s EkoCure ANCORA, while Mark Andy’s own Digital Series CMYK UV Inkjet and Digital One CMYK Toner were used for the digital presses.

In the Q&A session that followed, several of the students raised technical questions, which the Mark Andy support team answered – and as a direct result, invitations were issued for further visits to those who showed special interest.  Speaking for Mark Andy, Sales & Marketing Senior Assistant, Lena Chmielewska commented: “Education is fundamental to our industry and especially now with the speed of change and innovation.  As the market leader in narrow web technology, Mark Andy has a responsibility to inform and instruct the next generation who will work in printing.  We were delighted to have the opportunity of meeting these young people, and encouraging them to consider a career in labels.  Students are always welcome at Mark Andy.”