I was amazed to discover that people from all over the world had come to Nottingham for this event which was testament to the fact that printers do want to learn about the latest developments in screen and see where the future lies.

Two visitors (one from India and one from South Africa) had come specifically to attend this event together with delegates from Germany, Poland, France, Russia and Hungary plus a large group from Scandinavia. In total over 250 people were involved at some stage or other over the three days and the view of all those that I spoke to was very, very positive.

Chaired by my old friend and colleague, Peter Kiddell , Director of Prism (the UK FESPA Association), who commenced proceedings by saying what we (screen printers) are up against. He showed the following clip on screen:

"The lip of a cardboard box works best as a coater because it has a good straight edge and is rigid yet flexible" the source of which was apparently from a screen print training website. Unbelievable!

We were then not only treated to some brilliant and informative presentations, but also attended printing, drying and finishing demonstrations as well as undertaking a tour of the factory. I was last here in 1999 and it soon became clear that significant major changes had been made since my last visit. The factory is now much bigger (by the addition of adjoining units) and now totals 4,000sq metres. So let us start with Natgraph, the worlds' leading dryer manufacturer who, in partnership with Sakurai, are installing one line a month in countries all over the world. Alan Shaw, Commercial Director, welcomed us all and hoped we would all gain worthwhile knowledge and enjoy our time at the event.

Alan said that in 31 years, Natgraph have installed 13,000 pieces of equipment in 91 countries, all of them manufactured in their modern factory in Nottingham, UK. I am sad to say that manufacturing in the UK has diminished to such an extent that there is very little manufacturing left, but at Natgraph they manufacturer 95% of their whole range of products at their factory, so they truly are a British manufacturing company. Alan introduced a short video (www.natgraph.co.uk ) which tells part of the Natgraph story, so please do look at this so you can see just how fine their products are.

During his introduction, Alan mentioned a recent visit to Italy where he had been so impressed observing a female Sakurai Cylinder Press operator printing runs of just 25 (for membrane switch & flexible circuits) with 4 colours and her changeover of ink and screens took just ten minutes for each. She was also able to change jobs in just 25 minutes! Her work rate was incredible, so short runs are possible even on a cylinder press and can be very profitable.

Alan then introduced Shoichi Komi from Sakurai, Director of International trade, who told the story of Sakurai's growth since 1946 and their involvement in manufacturing screen cylinder presses since 1968. Shoichi also described how cylinder screen printing had distinct advantages over more traditional flatbed due to less interference to the mesh and showed some impressive statistics as to how this was achieved. We would later see two of the machines in action.

I firmly believe that those fortunate enough to be attending this event derived considerable benefit from the technical presentations made by the companies involved. As one would expect, the representatives from the manufacturers were so knowledgeable and spoke with much passion about their products that there is no way I can begin to show in this short report the detailed information, facts and figures they so ably demonstrated during their presentations. But I don't need to as Natgraph will be uploading all the presentations onto the Natgraph website in the next few days.

It was a great event to remind everybody of the capability of the screen process and update us with the most recent technologies which could save printers money as well as assist them in meeting their environmental obligations. I am not a printer so much of the technical information went way above my head, but the general buzz from the printers around the table top stands during breaks and demonstrations was highly charged and quite infectious and I truly believed that all those attending learnt a lot as well as having a great opportunity to network with international colleagues which was so worthwhile and valuable.

Everybody I spoke to made many valuable new contacts during their time at the event and this in itself had been extremely worthwhile. But when one added to it the tremendous information supplied by the partners in the event, it really was a most informative and rewarding activity.

In addition to the speaker programme we were treated to industrial screen printing demonstrations, print finishing demonstrations and a factory tour where all visitors were able to see Natgraph's complete manufacturing process's. Something fairly new in the factory was a large, fully automatic laser cutter which cuts up to 12mm steel for the fabrication of Natgraph's dryers With the recent acquisition of this laser, Natgraph have increased their efficiency dramatically.

Natgraph and Sakurai have to be highly commended for the initiative in organising this brilliant event. A lot of time, effort, energy and money went into this and delegates were as surprised as me to find that as well as lunch on all three days, the hospitality extended to fabulous evening meals for those staying overnight.

 

One final word of thanks to the whole Natgraph team who were subjected to this strange invasion by so many international visitors yet continued to work on regardless. The whole operation was overseen by Michelle Kennedy, sales and marketing manager at Natgraph and she did a really remarkable job as everything seemed to go so smoothly. Thanks from everyone Michelle for all your hard work.

 

It was great to be a part of this event and if anybody requires further information about any of the suppliers, you will find them all on the web or shortly you will be able to access the presentations and a video of the event itself via the Natgraph website.