DuPont Cyrel Flexographic Solutions marked the 25th anniversary of its thermal platemaking technology at Labelexpo Europe in Barcelona, highlighting the Cyrel FAST 1000 TD as the centerpiece of its booth. The company positioned the milestone within ongoing developments in flexographic plate processing for tag and label applications, and reported strong engagement from visitors throughout the show.
“This Labelexpo turned out to be extremely successful for us,” said Jan Scharfenberg, Business Leader EMEA with DuPont Cyrel Flexographic Solutions. “As we continue our '25 years of FAST' celebrations, this year’s Labelexpo enabled us to not only showcase our latest solutions but to reconnect with many of our global customers, as well as close a number of deals.”
“The striking DuPont Cyrel FAST 1000 TD was the cornerstone of our display, and it certainly proved popular with attendees, presenting a fantastic opportunity for us to demonstrate how the innovative FAST system and our entire range of flexo solutions already benefit customers across the worldwide tag and label industry,” Scharfenberg added.
“Labelexpo served as a great meeting point for customers and partners, and this year was another success for our team. In addition to our booth, we displayed our plates and platemaking equipment at various partner booths, and our ‘win a FAST 1000 TD’ competition, featuring a model kit of our flagship machine, attracted many visitors.”
Processing speed and workflow simplification
“We used Labelexpo to showcase just how Cyrel FAST simplifies complicated operations and makes it possible for businesses to achieve shorter runs and quick turnarounds on a wide variety of substrates,” said Scharfenberg. “Importantly for today’s converters, it achieves all this while minimizing the environmental footprint of platemaking operations. With sustainability a core theme at Labelexpo this year, the event was the ideal platform on which to go into detail on the benefits of the DuPont Cyrel FAST system.”
According to the company, attendees focused on specific performance and environmental metrics. “Many attendees were amazed to learn that it can reduce platemaking time by up to a staggering 75%, while others were impressed that the dry, solvent-free process eliminates the need to handle, distil and dispose of washout fluids,” Scharfenberg noted. “We used our booth to highlight that relative to a solvent workflow, using the DuPont Cyrel FAST system reduces VOC emissions by 99.8% and the global warming potential is reduced by 48%, minimizing environmental footprint.”
A quarter-century of Cyrel FAST technology
Hands-on demonstrations of the FAST 1000 TD were central to the company’s approach in Barcelona. “With the FAST 1000 TD demos at Labelexpo, many attendees had their first opportunity to discover for themselves just why the thermal processor is named FAST, because of how quickly it can provide the first plate,” said Scharfenberg.
The continued adoption of the FAST thermal technology, with more than 1,500 installations worldwide, was presented as evidence of sustained development since the system’s launch at the turn of the millennium. DuPont stated that the Cyrel FAST platemaking process has been continuously improved and fine-tuned to meet changing market demands.
The DuPont Cyrel team with the FAST 1000 TD
