Comexi CI evolution

The key to expanding the flexible packaging and labeling markets

Comexi offers the definitive printing solution for the most demanding customers: CI offset printing technology. It is ideal for short and medium runs and perfectly meets the stringent needs for fast, high-quality printing. This technology is completely solvent-free, making it the best environmental solution, as it reduces the number of layers and the carbon footprint, while offering the most competitive operating costs. The Offset CI is not only the best option to expand the market, but presents new solutions in recyclable flexible packaging as well.

Main benefits for you

* Reduced time to market

Planning productivity

The fast pre-press imaging and print preparation times, thanks to the offset technology, provide greater flexibility and allow urgent orders to be processed without jeopardising planning. 

You will be able to deliver orders before your competitors have started to produce them.

Automated job setup

Thanks to the high level of automation in the press functions, all the parameters can be saved and recovered to process identical or similar printing orders. The operator can easily predefine printing unit profiles based on the ink coverage data obtained in the pre-press (CIP4). When selecting the ink/water curves, you will be able to choose from programmed curves to individually modified ones. 

Many setpoints are calculated automatically for each length of specific repetition: the contact between the inking roller and the plate, the contact pressure between the specific printing cylinders, etc.

 Storing and recovering job data

All the data from an identical or similar previous print job can be recovered, and the press can be ready in a couple of minutes.

 * Greater customisation

 Faster pre-press

The offset lithographic plates, which are designed and processed in a couple of minutes, can be used in the press immediately. This great agility reduces the press downtime and allows the next job to be prepared before finishing the work in progress. Also, the offset pre-press provides greater flexibility when planning production, an undoubtable advantage for brand owners.

Sleeve and servo motor technology

Lightweight sleeves, made with aluminium or PU compounds (sold by different manufacturers), allow great repetitiveness in a continuous process, and also streamline job changeovers. Having finished the printing job in progress in the press, the sleeves for the next job wait their turn, with the plates and the blankets assembled, and they are loaded into the machine so that the next job can start in a couple of minutes. 

The individually driven printing cylinders with servo motors, combined with the CI technology, enables fast colour to colour register set up and warranties register accuracy throughout the printing run.

* Less cost, greater profitability

Thinner films and reduced waste

The CI technology allows processing finer and more elastic supports than the in line printing systems.

Lithographic plates and pre-press

The pre-printing process for creating the offset plates is normally carried out in the actual company, close to the press, providing a faster solution than conventional printing technologies. The plate image design is really fast and affordable, in comparison with preparing conventional flexographic plates or processing rotogravure cylinders. The cost of the offset plates is reduced, the design and the processing of the plates takes a couple of minutes. The offset technology allows choosing from a wide range of raster technologies, to find the most suitable solution for your product. 

Reduction of printed stocks

The speed and reduced cost of the pre-press process, together with the precise repetitiveness of the press, enables to work with short, individual runs at very competitive prices. 

Less daily maintenance

Thanks to the EB inks, it is not necessary to clean the printing units every day, and they can remain until the next day in the roller train, without the risk of drying or forming films.

* Sustainable process

Electron Beam Curing

Electron beam curing (EB) is a process that is applied with inks made up of a liquid mixture of monomers and oligomers, complemented with pigments and other additives. 

In the EB unit, the liquid ink receives the impact of high-speed electrons. The energy released by the electrons upon impact and when penetrating the liquid layer, trigger the ink polymerisation process, and the end result if a layer of completely solid ink on the printed substrates.

Absence of photo initiators

Unlike the inks with UV curing, the inks with EB curing do not contain photo initiators (elements with greater migration risk). Its absence in EB inks significantly reduces the risk of migration problems, adapting perfectly to the packaging print needs for the food sector.

Less thermal impact

The systems with EB curing produce less heat that the systems with UV curing, due to the absence of infrared radiation. The thermal impact of the UV systems has a negative effect on the support and on all the printing components around it, which causes deformation and tolerance problems.

Absence of solvents

The EB inks for lithography are solventless. As the ink passes through the roller train, the thixotropic characteristics of the ink cause a drop in viscosity. This behaviour, combined with the wetting water and a correct temperature of the roller train, helps to reduce viscosity so that the necessary properties can be obtained for optimum ink transfer.

Reduction of energy consumption

Without solvents that must be vaporised from the inks due to the action of hot air and, without solvents that must be oxidized from the hot air, the total energy consumption of an EB lithographic web offset press is less than that in other FP printing processes.

* High quality printing

CI technology

The CI technology has major advantages, particularly when talking about flexible packaging, in comparison with an in line web offset press, thanks to the great positional stability of the web on the Central Impression cylinder surface.

Offset printing standards

The offset printing sector is a reference in graphic arts and it has always been governed by demanding international patterns, set out in the various ISO standards and also in the working standards of leading organisations like FOGRA, GATF and ICC, and others. 

High variety of screening technologies

As well as reproducing sections of 2% and 98% and more than 80 L/cm, the offset technology is perfectly compatible with more modern digital screening methods, so that it is possible to define the optimum processing conditions for your work.

The most reliable technologies

The great repetitiveness of the offset system, combined with perfectly standardised procedures, guarantee stable and predictable colour reproduction, regardless of the geographic location or the time of the year.