Rows of large green cylindrical tubes are lined up in a workshop. A person wearing a blue shirt is blurred in the background, working with tesa tape and other equipment. The setting appears to be an industrial or manufacturing environment. (This text has been generated by AI)

New ‘rotec^® Hybrid TL Sleeve’ boosting flexo efficiency

Markets

Introducing a new base sleeve
tailor-made for tesa® Twinlock

Process efficiency in flexo printing

We all know and love flexo printing for its versatility, speed, and high print quality. However, one of the challenges that flexo printers face is the need for more small-quantity runs and more frequent changeovers due to the increasing demand for customization and the need for faster turnaround times.
To meet these demands, it is essential to take every possible step for optimized process efficiency. Recent customer feedback included that handling of large and heavy tesa® Twinlock sleeves can hold up processes and increase the risk of damaging the sleeves – resulting in production downtime until the sleeve is replaced and the plate is mounted again.

Introducing ‘rotec® Hybrid TL Sleeve’

A cross-section of a cylindrical object with a green outer layer. Four blue arrows point to different layers: the green outer surface, a thin black tesa tape line beneath, a beige textured middle layer, and a smooth inner layer. (This text has been generated by AI)

In collaboration with XSYS, we have developed a sleeve especially optimized for tesa® Twinlock, featuring superior dimensional stability and bounce reduction to ensure print quality at high speeds. The special sleeve design offers lower weight compared to similar products, making sleeve handling easier, which is important for operator safety and reduces the risk of sleeve damage – increasing process efficiency and avoiding replacement costs.

Product managers Gina Wienbracke (XSYS) and Steffen Ebenau (tesa)

To provide fast services to our customers worldwide, both the base sleeve production by XSYS and our tesa® Twinlock production process take place in Europe and North America using highly optimized processes and our combined long-term market experience for a product excelling in consistency and fulfilling market requirements.

Easier sleeve handling for operators
Lower risk of damaging sleeves
Avoiding production downtime
Saving costs due to longer lifetime

tesa® Twinlock

Simply put, tesa® Twinlock is a reusable, self-adhesive, and compressible plate mounting sleeve - the printing plate can be directly mounted on the sleeve, which makes the plate mounting process highly efficient. After printing and plate removal, the tackiness can simply be re-activated and the sleeve is ready for the next job.

Every tesa® Twinlock sleeve is based on market standard sleeve types.
Flexo printers can select their favorite sleeve and we take that sleeve and add all layers that make up the final ready-to-print tesa® Twinlock product.