Welcome and Overview
Kern Cox
Senior Lecturer
Clemson University

Session will serve to introduce the "print machine”, flexographic printing directly onto corrugated substrates, system components, and the elements running control targets. Review of press functions to refresh all on feed/register, plates/parts and functions, impression and drying/curing provisions. This leads into understanding that each machine must be treated as a "one-of-a-kind" and thus characterized for all images, line and screen.

Corrugated Substrates today and future trends
Jonathan Dunlap
Director, Product Management - Containerboard
WestRock

Overview of board grades, liner weights, flute combinations, “rough” whitetop vs “light coated” whitetop, structural strength vs. graphics capabilities. How are suppliers and printers responding to brand owners and consumer demands? Why is direct-to-consumer such a driving force in the packaging and graphics “toolkit?” How does it contrast with substrate demands in retail graphics?

The Printing Plate “Package” today
Gerry Mounsey
President
Lead Edge Flexo America’s LLC

Where do old printing plates go when they “die”? What happens to “scrap” printing plates? What about the PVC carrier sheets? Polyvinyl what?, phthalates what?, chlorine gas?, endocrine disruptors? What solutions are there for printers to make a bio statement and “improve from the norm” in the 21st century? Get a preview to the roadmap of the future of an environmentally responsible trade shop through a reduction of PVC use and increase in sustainable products. Let actions show customers and consumers how much you care.

Interpreting the printing targets and strategies for troubleshooting
Catherine Haynes
VP of Growth & Development
All Printing Resources, Inc

Measurements, charts, SID/color, dot area/TVI, overprints, slur, BWR, dry ink, “running” the tests, recording data, software aids. Make targets an everyday common language in the printing. Targets and process control are the key to problem-solving being the exception rather than the rule. Targets = repeatability. Repeatability is essential to “predictability”.Predictability = “right” the first time. Right the first time = "business successes”.

Ink system best practices
Mike Gentry
National Technical Manager
Flint Group

Quality attributes in direct print corrugated rely on communicating “component inputs” to minimize unnecessary compromises. Recognize why inks get treated like a clean-up hitter in baseball and why the “clean-up hitter” must be properly maintained. Corrugator parameters, liner disruptions, shifting process specifications all matter. A last minute “change” didn’t affect ECT, but what about graphics quality? Actual cases and real solutions. “Best” way to control the process.

Virtual Reality for Learning Purposes
Nate Newsome
Virtual Reality Developer
Clemson University

Zoom, Teams, Slack, Google Workspace, metaverse technology, remote collaborations. Experience firsthand how the learning landscape is evolving. A dive into the digital overlay on a physical world to shorten the flexographic learning curve. Opportunities to share future technological ideas in a virtual realm.

Artificial Intelligence… State of the “art” today and future opportunities
Gerry Derksen
Professor
Clemson University

Design related Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are becoming part of the work pipeline for designers and in turn for production. Are you ready to embrace these capabilities? How strong is the I in AI for production ready graphics? Concerns for designers? Hands-on introduction to the tools and how they enable or restrict the process to produce functional and effective visual communications. Open discussion with audience on how they are experiencing different touchpoints with AI.