Pop-up displays are everywhere; seen throughout retail locations and club stores, the displays often hold new products that are just waiting to be purchased.
Many of those are made by flexography, a printing method that uses rubber plates and fluid inks for printing on corrugated board and many of those pop-up displays, called “point-of-purchase” displays, are made at Sutherland Packaging, whose main headquarters is nestled in Andover Township.
Corrugated board is a thick and cardboard-like material that is shaped into alternate ridges and grooves. It ranges from an eighth of an inch to a quarter of an inch thick.
Paul Rachanow, graphics coordinator for Sutherland Packaging, noted that Sutherland went from printing simple two- and three-color products to five-color displays within the last six years.
“We take customers’ artwork that is really designed for the lithograph business and convert it to print it on flexography on corrugated board,” said Rachanow. “It takes a certain amount of talent because you are taking a printing plate that has flexibility to it.”
In addition to the unevenness of using flexible plates, dots of ink are squeezed onto the board, so making sure not too much ink on the plate and not too much pressure is used has to be considered.