中文DuPont Cyrel Flexographic Solutions has achieved certification for three of its flexographic plate products within the Esko Quartz ecosystem, marking a significant milestone in the two companies’ ongoing Better Together initiative. The certified plates — Cyrel Easy ESXR, Cyrel Easy EPR2, and Cyrel Fast Easy EFXR — have been validated for use with Esko’s CDI Quartz imaging, XPS Crystal exposure, and Quartz screening technology, providing converters and trade shops with a fully integrated, tested flexographic platemaking workflow.
The certification is more than a technical checkbox. In the flexographic printing world, the interaction between plate material, imaging technology, exposure system, and screening software determines the final print quality. When these components are optimized in isolation, the results can be unpredictable. When they are validated together as an ecosystem, converters gain confidence that the complete platemaking chain will deliver consistent, repeatable results — and that is exactly the assurance DuPont and Esko are offering.
“The certification represents an important milestone in the ongoing collaboration between DuPont and Esko under the joint Better Together initiative,” said PJ Fronczkiewicz, North American Manager for Technical Marketing and Service at DuPont Cyrel Flexographic Solutions. “With Better Together, we are focusing on validating optimized combinations of plate materials, imaging technologies and workflows to provide measurable performance improvements for flexographic printers and tradeshops.”
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the certification is that Cyrel Fast Easy EFXR becomes the first thermally processable flexographic plate certified for the Esko Quartz ecosystem. This is significant because thermal processing eliminates the need for solvents during plate production, reducing VOC emissions and simplifying plate room operations. Until now, converters who wanted the environmental and operational benefits of thermal processing had to question whether they were sacrificing imaging performance. With Quartz certification, that trade-off no longer exists.
Michael Weber, Technical Service Leader EMEA and Neu-Isenburg site manager at DuPont, emphasized the sustainability dimension. The Cyrel Fast thermal workflow was recently certified as delivering 20 percent less energy consumption by GreenCircle Certified, providing converters and brand owners with independent assurance regarding the system’s environmental performance. “With the addition of Quartz certification, customers no longer need to choose between advanced imaging performance and the operational advantages of thermal processing,” Weber said.
The certified portfolio covers a range of packaging applications. Cyrel Easy ESXR is designed for flexible packaging and process print, offering strong ink transfer and press performance. Cyrel Easy EPR2 provides a combination of print quality, versatility, and productivity for flexible packaging and label applications. Cyrel Fast Easy EFXR combines DuPont’s Easy technology with Fast thermal processing, enabling plate production while supporting high-resolution imaging and print reproduction.
Pascal Thomas, Esko’s Director of Flexo Product Management, framed the collaboration as a response to industry demand for validated end-to-end solutions rather than standalone technologies. “By combining DuPont Cyrel plate technology with Esko Quartz imaging, customers can achieve improved process control while maintaining the durability and print consistency required in modern packaging production environments,” he said. The validated ecosystem provides consistent imaging performance, enhanced print reproduction, reduced production variability, and greater process standardization.
The collaboration reflects a broader industry trend. As packaging printers face increasing demands for higher quality graphics, tighter process control, shorter production cycles, and improved sustainability, the days of mixing and matching components without validation are numbered. Brand owners increasingly expect converters to demonstrate process control and consistency, and integrated, certified ecosystems provide the data and assurance to meet those expectations.
For converters and trade shops evaluating workflow modernization, the Quartz certification provides confidence that the complete plate imaging process has been validated across both technologies. This reduces implementation risk, accelerates adoption of next-generation flexographic workflows, and helps ensure that the investment in new plate materials and imaging technology delivers the expected returns.
The Better Together initiative between DuPont and Esko is not a one-time event but an ongoing program of testing and certification. Both companies have indicated that they will continue to validate additional plate and imaging combinations, expanding the range of certified workflows available to converters. For an industry that has historically relied on trial-and-error optimization, this systematic approach to ecosystem validation represents a meaningful step forward.
The sustainability implications of the thermal processing certification deserve closer examination. Solvent-based plate processing has been a target of environmental regulators for years, and many jurisdictions are tightening limits on VOC emissions from printing operations. Converters who proactively adopt solvent-free processing technologies are not only reducing their environmental footprint but also future-proofing their operations against regulatory changes that could otherwise require costly retrofits or process overhauls. The combination of GreenCircle energy certification and Esko Quartz imaging certification gives converters two independent, credible validations of the environmental and technical performance of the Cyrel Fast workflow.
The Better Together initiative also raises interesting questions about the future of vendor relationships in the flexo supply chain. Historically, plate manufacturers, imaging equipment vendors, and screening software providers have operated independently, with converters bearing the integration risk. The DuPont-Esko collaboration represents a model where vendors share that risk by validating their technologies together and providing customers with documented, tested combinations. If this model proves successful, it could encourage other vendor pairings — ink manufacturers with press builders, substrate suppliers with coating companies — ultimately creating a more integrated and reliable supply chain for flexographic converters. For an industry that has historically been fragmented across dozens of specialized suppliers, this trend toward validated ecosystems could be transformative.
Source: The Packman
