FRANCE • The manufacturer of narrow web offset and letterpress lines Codimag celebrates its 40th year in business. Headquartered in France, the company has partnered with Toray, a manufacturer of waterless offset plate technology for the past two decades.
Toray Graphics has an installed base of more than 400 presses worldwide. Codimag has installed more than 200 narrow web waterless offset presses to date, according to Benoît Demol, CEO of this family-owned business.
“When we first started working with Toray,” Demol explains, “introducing waterless offset printing to the narrow web market was truly an innovation. In 2007, we introduced our Aniflo technology anilox solution that creates the most competitive narrow web press for short to medium – and even longer – runs, another important innovation for this market.”
A detailed article to Codimag’s Aniflo printing process is published in this post.
Demol, the company’s CEO for the past three years, states: “The key benefit of waterless offset printing is its quality,” he says. “We wanted to avoid the instability and waste associated with the ink/water balance in wet offset.” According to him, the partnership with Toray began in the late 1990s in order to bring waterless offset printing to their customers. “Our latest presses are completely designed for waterless offset printing, and we are selling only Aniflo presses these days”, Demol sums up.
Another factor that can negatively impact the quality, cost and productivity of wet offset, according to Demol, is the use of chemistry in platemaking. “Plates are faster to make and more environmentally sustainable. Not only do we not use chemistry in the platemaking process, but we also avoid the issues that are caused when chemistry is not properly maintained, which can result in poor printing quality and excessive waste”, he says.
Demol is summing up: “I am really happy with the direction Toray is going with its Imprima line of plates.” Demol is also looking forward to visiting Toray’s new R&D Centre in the Czech Republic.
In 2017, Codimag attended Labelexpo China in Shanghai for the first time. Demol explains: “We had attendees bring us their own files, and we were able to print them in less than 30 minutes, with the entire process unfolding before their eyes.”
For 40 years, Codimag has designed, manufactured and sold printing presses with high added-value at its facilities in Bondoufle, France. Toray Graphics, a subsidiary of Toray Textiles Central Europe (TTCE), is based in the Czech Republic and features manufacturing line for waterless printing plates.
