Last month approximately 50 industry professionals joined Art and Shae Fields, owners of the Flexographic Trade School (FTS), in Fort Mill, S.C., to honor Ron and Katherine Harper with the dedication of the school’s new, state of the art Harper Lab of Flexography.
“Dedicating this lab to Ron and Katherine Harper is so appropriate,” Art Fields said at the Nov. 27 ceremony. “I can honestly say no one has put more into putting people into the flexographic industry than Mr. and Mrs. Harper.”
Fields, who is also the program director of FTS, went on to express his gratitude to the Harpers, co-founders of global anilox supplier Harper Corp. of America, for believing in the Fields’ vision for a flexographic trade school when they set out to establish FTS eight years ago.
The school’s new Harper Flexo Lab showcases a variety of Mark Andy products, including two new 10-in. 8-color presses, a 10-in. 830 converting system, a 17-in. VSR300 slitter/rewinder, and a 17-in. VSR300D die cutter/slitter/rewinder. It also features the AAA Lightouch UV curing system with eight stations, an American Die Technology hot stamp unit, an Amagic cold foil unit, a Lederle tabletop rewinder, a Cyrel digital imager, a Dupont Cyrel Fast 1000TD thermal developer, a Dupont Cyrel fast exposure unit, five G5 Mac computers, and a spectrodensitometer, as well as a spectrophotometer from X-Rite, to name just some of the pressroom’s machinery.
In addition to providing flexo education and training for well-qualified students, FTS is the commissioned training and research center for its 140+ member companies. Supported by more than 40 leading vendor sponsors, FTS’ International Training and Research Center offers its converter members and vendors a facility for advancing their business technologies. The school’s students run live production work commissioned by members. The result is a flexo community that benefits from a graduate pool with experience in a live production environment. In return, graduating students enjoy a 100 percent job placement rate.
