Dialogue and alliances: the path of Atif

Representation, training, knowhow and qualification in the flexo field: Sante Conselvan is tackling his second mandate as President of the Italian flexographic association with the objective of giving solidity and continuity to the initiatives started up over the previous three years.

Highly active, open to agreements and alliances: a “down-to-earth idealist” with an intrinsic liveliness, a sort of composed tenacity that guarantees continuity. This is how the president of Atif, Sante Conselvan, presents himself, having now reached his second mandate, even tougher and requiring more commitment than the first one «because, as politics teaches us, consolidating is even harder than starting out».Conselvan accepted the appointment under a sense of responsibility for the community he has come to represent, where «a whole series of people I hold in great esteem asked me to accompany to growth the seeds I have sown over these last three years». But also to follow a sincere passion, facilitated by the solidity of a mature entrepreneur, that allows him to dedicate energy to projects of common interest. Because, aboveall in the global world, on your own you count for ever less, at times even for nothing.

When you accepted the post to lead Atif for another three years you expressed enthusiasm and at the same time worry. Why? Because there is a lot in the offing and the commitment is intense, but also because giving solidity and prospects to a project that has already been started up always entails a fair amount of risk, or if you like, of wager. The support and encouragement from the others has been decisive, though I was aboveall drawn on by value of what was at stake, or that is the prospects of an association capable of offering service operators concrete and sizeable advantages.For my part I can say that Atif membership is growing, the same going for the degree of participation at the various work commissions, the Flexo Day 2015 sign-ups have increase further, and with the BestInFlexo competition we were even able to convince Italian printers, traditionally reserved and somewhat jealous of their prerogatives, to put themselves on the line in a contest that leads straight to Drupa, to the podium of the 2016 European awards.

What are the advantages that Atif offers to its associate members? What are its proposed objectives? The projects are many and different. In terms of training for example, we will increase the offer of update courses, started up two years and organized on three levels (basic, intermediate and advanced). Operators appreciate them because they fill an institutional gap and solve a real problem qualifying personnel. We thus hope to also stimulate the graphic institutes to take up the initiative, integrating their programs with courses on flexographic printing.But aboveall we now intend to intensify the offer of “tailor made” courses to be held at the single concerns that have to tackle a problem of training on specific work aspects.On top of that, in cooperation with the universities, we are thinking of organizing a course that includes a theoretical training part as well as a part of hands-on training using machines. The Swedish polytechnic of Sunne for example has announced its willingness to host a stage in English, with participants from various nations.

In Italy we are lacking structures where hands-on experience can be made and tests and experiments carried out, unlike other European nations. At what stage is the Atif project for a flexoprinting Technology Center? This is an objective we cannot renege on, but it is also ambitious and longterm and requires special spaces, personnel, technology and hence considerable funds. It is now closer thanks to our alliance with the machine builders association Acimga, with which we share the project, tools and resources and that, overall features as an important “window” onto other technologies: the dialogue between specialisations is a must.Meanwhile we have achieved a series of concrete results, that will soon allow us to be independent as regards a significant part of activities, both educational and research. During the last meeting in December in fact the Atif steering committee started setting up the structure where we can carry out the more technical phases of the training courses and important parts of association’s researches and tests: we have found a school that is willing to host us (Fondazione Luigi Ripamonti, Como, Ed.), agreed upon the commitment of qualified consultants and earmarked a budget for the purchase of equipment.

Atif is actually performing a driving role both on the international scene and in Italy...Atif is by now seen to have a high level technical and professional background, to the point of being invited to hold talks in conferences on flexography, recently also in Australia and Poland. But not only that: we are also appreciated because we promote exchanges and alliances that benefit all concerned. I try and put myself in the shoes of a EU official who has to choose whether to fund a project of national scope or a development plan involving all the FTA confederate countries (the European federation of flexo printing of which Conselvan is president, Ed)… in your opinion what would he choose?    

As well as training, Atif has always been involved with experimentation, carrying out research activities first hand that lead to the so-called Documents, like those on plates presented at the last Flexo Day. Will you carry on with this commitment? Yes certainly. It is a task that will lead us to sharing languages and criteria, providing objective methods and, without wishing to teach anybody the Truth, suggest a path to be followed to avoid nasty surprises and dead ends. Atif’s Documents, that are continuously updated, something we commit ourselves to, have allowed us to make great strides forward, aboveall in relation to the more delicate phases of the flexographic process. We intend enriching the same with new studies on aspects that the converters themselves indicate as pre-eminent (inks, adhesives…), and compared to those made by associations similar to ours in countries the world over: the USA for example, with evident reciprocal benefits.

Experimentation rhymes with standardization…Clarifying problems and processes helps create shared standards at a supranational level, typically under UNI, of which Atif is part and that in this period is headed by China. Our representative will take part in the meetings of the standardisation body, acting as a spokesperson of our professional culture and our needs, to make sure our flexographers don’t find themselves operating in a universe with extraneous rules. Rules - it is well worth noting - that have a concrete impact on the way the global market works, market where packaging users demand a standard quality and service.

Hence, dialogue and sharing are at the basis of your program.Yes indeed. Our constant commitment is to extend the dialogue, involving both converters as well as their suppliers and customers. But also with universities along with other centers of excellence, the machine builders associations and the various specialisation groups in the Assografici galaxy, of which Atif is also part. Without counting that if we wish to actually help the printers to work better we cannot just deal with printing in the most limited sense, but we also have to consider materials, additional processes, environment, emissions and everything related to the same. And perhaps also accept that digital printing is not the “enemy” but a complimentary technology, like many others that one would be well advised to be kept updated on. Trying to imagine, with the concrete imagination of those who work in the trade, what flexography will be like and what flexography will be capable of doing in the future.