Revolutionizing the flexo operation with oneECG

What does BOBST oneECG mean for inline flexo?
oneECG is BOBST's extended color gamut technology as deployed across analogue and digital printing processes for labels, flexible packaging, folding cartons and corrugated board. By fully digitalizing and automating color management, oneECG takes flexo printing to a higher level in terms of improved time-to-market, print quality, cost reduction, and better sustainability.

oneECG uses a fixed set of inks - CMYK with the option to add orange, green and violet - to achieve a larger color gamut than printing with traditional technology. With the oneECG system, printers can also ensure complete color consistency and repeatability irrespective of the individual operator's skill and experience.

Instead of mixing inks in an ink kitchen to match a specific Pantone or 'spot' color, the color is built up on press by layers from the fixed color set, usually using two to three inks. oneECG allows printers to accurately replicate 65% of the Pantone book with just four colors and up to 95% with seven, depending on the substrate. This represents huge savings in costs, materials and time, meaning converters can delivery faster at a more competitive cost level and better environmental footprint.

Advantages and benefits for flexo converters
The digitalization of BOBST MASTER series of inline flexo presses with high levels of automation, such as DigiFlexo for automatic pressure and register setting and quality control, combined with oneECG make them so efficient and productive that ONE fully equipped BOBST narrow or medium web press replaces TWO standard flexo machines.

In other words: one press configured with BOBST oneECG provides an increase of 50% in productivity and a more sustainable production environment.

By implementing oneECG, converters can enjoy a huge range of benefits, including:

• Increased productivity and reduction in downtime - as only the plates are changed, there is no need to load the ink tray, change the anilox or the doctor blade at each job changeover. Coupled with automatic register control, makeready time is reduced by 50%.
  
• More flexibility with cross-compatibility between technologies - oneECG allows jobs to be transferred from flexo to digital or vice versa without limits while maintaining full color consistency.
  
• Shorter job runs can be printed more profitably - faster setup, no changeover of inks and anilox converts to less ink waste, less substrate waste and faster turnaround. And with oneECG, multiple SKUs can easily be printed across the web.
  
• Reduction in cleaning time and consumables - a fixed set of inks means cleaning becomes part of the regular maintenance and is not required at each job changeover.
  
• Big ink savings and space optimization - oneECG creates no ink waste and uses 30% less ink. With only four to seven fixed colors, converters will not have valuable storage space taken up by large inventories of Pantone inks, leftovers and waste.
  
• Significant substrate waste reduction - all color matching is done in prepress which means the press comes to color much faster than in traditional flexo printing. Combined with DigiFlexo, less than 30 meters of substrate is used at each new job setup.
  
• Exact job repeatability - a oneECG job can be repeated successfully on different presses, in different factories, even in different parts of the world, because in the main, color matching is done digitally, allowing for better business continuity.
  
• Even savings on plate costs - when a job is converted to oneECG, there is most often a reduction in the number of colors required, so fewer plates are needed for each job.