Athena Graphics - Roeselare, Belgium, one of the most prestigious and dynamic prepress companies in Europe has chosen Glunz & Jensen as their long-term Partner for Automated Platemaking Systems. This decision was based on a partnership agreement signed with Glunz & Jensen in 2016 that covered the development and delivery of fully automated processing systems for flexographic printing plates used in Athena’s prepress operation.

In order for Athena Graphics to find the best flexo plate production solution for their daily platemaking operation, they visited competitive repro houses in Europe. One of the repro houses was Digital Flex s.r.l. in Italy. Digital Flex s.r.l. - Nuova Roveco Group - is one of the largest, high-quality repro houses in Italy, and it is the first company in Italy to install an “automated” Plate Processing System from Glunz & Jensen. The Athena Graphics team met with Paolo Cornali who walked them through their complete production set-up.

Paolo Cornali, Director Flexo Printing at Digital Flexo s.r.l. said: “The key benefit to us is first of all the consistent high plate quality. Nothing is a coincidence; everything is programmed exactly to meet our desired quality level and leaves out any human error. What is more the unique elevator system moves the plates freely between all process steps. This simplified plate handling system and very sturdy mechanics means much less wear points and less service costs for us.”

Stefaan Deblauwe, Operations Manager at Athena Graphics says: “We invited Glunz & Jensen to be our partner in the continuous development and supply of platemaking systems. The decision was based on the design and quality of their automated platemaking systems and the service the company delivers. We believe the new FlexLine Pro will add great value to our operation and to the quality of the jobs we deliver to our customers.”

Peter Jensen, Vice President, Global Key Account & Marketing at Glunz & Jensen: We have developed a completely new approach to automated platemaking. Our goal with the FlexLine Pro is to make our customers rethink their prepress workflow and benefit by better quality and more flexibility in their workflow. The modularity in our system and the automated movement of the plate between the platemaking steps minimises manual handling and brings routine maintenance to a minimum. FlexLine Pro optimizes the overall flexo platemaking process and provides a more consistent plate quality.