A month after announcing an agreement with Global Graphics to partner with Hybrid Solutions packaging workflows, Agfa has announced Amfortis as a production workflow aimed at carton converters and going beyond its established Apogee workflows.
Apogee has never been optimised for carton converters. Amfortis aims to change this with functionality that addresses issues that carton printers face. And it lays the ground work for extended gamut printing to reduce the reliance on spot colours.
Amfortis is available in both server and cloud versions. It includes optimisation for step and repeat placement of blanks on the plate, job management and the normal functions for design optimisation. The user can also direct a job to a digital press or large format inkjet machine for production of proofs or short runs of samples through the single Amfortis interface.
The software includes integration with PressTune, used to provide colour consistency and to reduce ink consumption if required. There is integration of Spiral, Agfa’s tool for changing the shape of a printed dot to achieve smoother tint areas and Aziro, its security print set, which can be used to apply anti counterfeiting or design elements to a package.
As well as this, features included with Amfortis indicate support for extended gamut separations and printing using seven colours to reproduce spot colours used in packaging, and supporting shorter runs as washing up of the press for different specials can be eliminated.
Fratelli Roda is a Swiss printer that has been a test site for Amfortis. It produces food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics packaging and endorses the new workflow. Production manager Gian Luca Pellegrini says: “It has made our production process both faster and more secure, as it allowed us to eliminate intermediate steps. Our operators, who were already used to working with Apogee, feel that the interface is very intuitive.”
At the time of announcing its agreement with Hybrid Sofware, Agfa global head of software Andy Grant, said: “We see this alliance as a logical next step, and as a way to build upon our existing technologies to develop innovative and customer oriented solutions for our current as well as future market segments.”
Agfa also sees Amfortis as a logical step for Apogee customers and other commercial printers to make a transition into packaging print. “Amfortis becomes an on-ramp for commercial printers who are extending their capabilities with packaging services,” says senior product manager Mark Lewiecki.
