The Roto-Hybrid team recently attended and gave a presentation at the Gravure Association of the Americas Technical Forum, typically held in the Autumn, in Clearwater, Florida.
Opening the event was a keynote speech on ‘The Opportunity for Transformative Breakthrough in Gravure’ by Professor Robert Eller of the Rochester Institute of Technology and as part of the innovation Incubator session Lee Oakley from Roto-Hybrid gave an update on the Roto-Hybrid business and its continuing development of both the Hybrid Cylinder and Hybrid Chrome Replacement technologies.
There is much uncertainty in the global gravure and flexible packaging industry as to what will come out of the up and coming REACH regulations review in respect of their long running evaluation of chromium compounds in gravure and their future use. Whether there will exist, an environment of increasing regulations and a possible outright ban is the focus of much discussion within the industry.
As part of the presentation the focus was on the Roto-Hybrid European Commission research grant and its goal to bring to market a viable chrome free gravure cylinder process such as HCR which offers a real solution to the current and future challenges of chromium regulation whilst simultaneously offering a technically superior gravure cylinder with improved ink release, better wear resistance and additional performance gains over and above its health and environmental superiority to chromium compounds.
The Gravure Association of the Americas, of which Hybrid Cylinders are members is a trade association formed as the result of the merger between the Packaging and Label Gravure Association Global (PLGA Global) and the Gravure Asociation of America (GAA with the intent to create value and opportunities through interactive communication, training, education and promotion of the Gravure printing process.