- A seminar in National Taichung Industrial High School

     Invited by the Printing Department at National Taichung Industrial High School, Mr. Liang, the managing director of Joint Colour, held a campus seminar of Flexo on April 19, 2000. To broaden students' view on this growing industry and give a direction of learning, two topics were introduced -- "The Latest Market Situation and Trend of Flexo Printing".

     Because Flexo only takes about 15% of packaging printing market, it is difficult to give a complete understanding of Flexo to students by theoretical methods and they do not have such an opportunity to learn Flexo in their daily life. Even though teachers used to take some samples from aboard to enhance students' learning, they still felt confused with Flexo printing. Some teachers of National Taichung Industrial High School decided to invite Mr. Liang to make a speech, from both commercial and technological aspects to introduce Flexo printing.

     Mr. Liang is both the president and founder of Joint Colour. Graduated from the Printing Department at Taiwan Art Professional School, he's dedicated to distributing printing materials and equipments for 21 years. At present, Joint Colour is the exclusive distributor of BASF Drucksysteme, Comexi wide-web press, rotec sleeve system & Grey back, and Rexson dispensing system. Joint Colour has devoted to the promotion of Flexo printing for several years.

     On Mar. 1998 they developed a website http://www.taiwanflexo.com with the topic of Flexography. On Jun. 1998 supported by BASF and many other European companies, they held a large seminar in Taiwan named TAIWAN FLEXO '98, which helped a lot with the development of Flexo printing in Taiwan.

     The seminar in National Taichung Industrial School lasted for two hours and 13 teachers and more than 300 students attended. The first part of the seminar was the latest market situation and trend, with the information supported by Mr. Wolfgang Klos-Geiger, the Publisher and Editor of Germany professional magazines -- "Flexo & Gravure" and "Narrow Web Tech". The content provided an objective comparison of Flexo development between western countries and Asia-Pacific. By introducing the practical applications, developing process and relative growth of Flexo, this part enabled students to understand that Flexo is not only the star in the future but also the leading trend together with offset printing.

     The second part was the latest technology. Supported by Mr. Volker Jasen, BASF technician, many new technologies were introduced such as thin plate, CTP digital plate, seamless digital sleeve, and UV Flexo in narrow-web. The fast-growing technology of Flexo printing that surpasses other printing procedures is due to the R&D contribution of material suppliers and equipment manufacturers. The audience was really amazed at this part.

     Besides, Mr. Liang also introduced new managing concepts to students and the way to utilize them to maximize profit when they start their careers of printing. The content included newest CNC press, gearless operation, TQM, JIT principles and so on. This part also showed the growing worldwide market share of Flexo (35%) and the decaying trend of gravure (23%) and other printing procedures. Therefore Flexo is the going trend and the customers and market share will keep growing. This information came from Mr. Josep Roca, Sales manager of Comexi s.a.

     The last part was Q&A. Students asked some questions about CTP they were interested and some about inks they felt difficult. The time had passed two hours and everyone enjoyed the seminar. Teachers showed many thanks to Mr. Liang for his time and the rich speech, especially for his view on commercial and market aspects that gave students more understanding of practical application of Flexo printing. The director of the Printing Department at National Taichung Industrial School also showed great intention to keep holding such seminars in the future, for their mission of nurturing excellent people of Taiwan printing industry.