Asahi Kasei Corp., headquartered in Tokyo which is the parent company of Asahi Photoproducts, today announced that Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd., also headquartered in Tokyo, has switched to AWP™ water-washable flexographic plates for the printing of beverage labels in Japan on their 550 ml PET bottles. This is the first time for AWP™ plates to be used for printing labels in the beverage industry in Japan. In implementing this next-generation flexo printing technology, Asahi Kasei collaborated with Fuji Seal, Inc. According to research by Fuji Seal, this is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 30% compared to the plate technology that had previously been used.
Flexographic printing is a widely used printing method around the world. Currently, the printing plates used are primarily solvent-washable plates that require an organic solvent-based washing solution in the wash out step of the plate-making process. Asahi Kasei develops and manufactures water-washable plates that use a water-based washing solution, which is more environmentally friendly. The AWP™ water-washable plates adopted for label printing at Suntory Beverage & Food are now used at its Suntory Kyushu Kumamoto Plant, where solvent-washable plates had previously been used.
