Aerovex Formerly Modern Solutions

Ever since Coast Label Co. installed platemaking equipment in 1994, the custom label converter has made many friends. The Newport Beach, Calif., business also found one of the inherent problems in platemaking: dust interference when exposing the plate.

“Our ability to serve our customer was limited by our inability to make plates,” says Craig Moreland, president, of the decision to start making plates.

The dust problem has vanished since Coast discovered Modern Solutions and its line of antistatic products that happen to fit well with Moreland’s philosophy: “Focus on doing it right the first time, do it well and reduce or eliminate scrap.”

Begun in 1970, Coast Label has seen 37 percent sales increases, compounded annually, since Moreland purchased the business in 1991. Projected sales this year are $2.7 million. Coast sells custom labels and tags to the printing trade that includes printing brokers and forms companies.

Because of its platemaking ability, Coast Label also has a somewhat unique relationship as a supplier of film negatives and plates to typically small, label companies in southern California. “I think because we are a trade printer, and we make labels for other local label companies in specialty areas that the average flexo-only label company can’t do, there is a trust level,” Moreland says. Specialties include consecutive bar codes and jumbo numbers. “Since we are only dealing with the trade, and we don’t have our own sales force out there on the street competing with them, they feel we are not a threat if we make plates or negs for them.”

A mutual unattraction

An in-house platemaking department offers Coast the luxury of quick turnarounds and quality plates. “If there’s a damaged printing plate now, in two hours we can get a new one. The old scenario took 48 hours,” says Moreland.

A Kelleigh platemaker, Alan Graphic Systems camera, film processor, and DuPont Cyrel® photopolymer materials produce label-industry-standard, 0.067-in, plates.

“We discovered that by using Modern Solutions’ whole antistatic system – to prepare our negs and Krene [vacuum film on the platemaker] – we drastically reduces our platemaking scrap,” he says. Even in its separate, air-conditioned and filtered platemaking room, doors open and filters aren’t perfect, says Moreland.

Modern Solutions products reduce the static electricity that permits “atmospheric junk” to cling to negatives and vacuum-holddown film. By treating the negative and film with antistatic products, they are less attractive to dust, he says.

Coast Label has been using the antistatic products for two years. “We didn’t know of any other products like these on the market,” Moreland admits.

Coast Labels uses an entire Modern Solutions’ system: Improve Plus antistatic glass cleaner cleans the vacuum bed; Impress antistatic protective coating eliminates static from the krene cover sheet, and Cyber-Fabric magnetic wiping cloth. The Flexowand, an antistatic film drawdown wand, evacuates air pockets between the plate material, film and Krene.

Coast Label operates four flexo presses (all are 7 to 10 in, wide) as well a hot-stamping press, two flatbed letterpresses and three thermal-transfer printers for consecutive numbering and bar-coding applications. Three of its flexo presses are from Allied Gear. The other is a new 10 3/4-in.-wide Roto Press Model 3510 with six-color capability and UV-curing in the last station. Rotary tooling is purchased from RotoMetrics; flatbed tooling is from Apple Steel Rule Die.

A niche player performing specialty and standard work, Coast prints from simple black ink on fluorescent stock and one-color pin-feeds to complex, six-color jobs with special diecuts. It stocks specialty films and paper from big-name suppliers.

In many cases, Coast Label acts as a consultant to smaller label houses, giving them tips on how to best setup jobs, run jobs and order dies. It is now spreading the word on minimizing static attraction to produce a quality plate.

Written By: Lynanne Feilen (Editor Converting Magazine)