Can printing brings the rain forest to life

"No one has taken wet-on-wet printing this far." That's how Mary Ellen Reis, director of packaging at Mistic Brands, White Plains, NY, describes the award-winning five-color print job on her company's line of Rain Forest nectars.

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The cans beat 47 other entries to win the Grand Award in the first annual Excellence in Quality com-petition sponsored by the National Metal Decorators Assn./Crabtree of Gateshead Ltd. The two-piece 202 aluminum cans are supplied and printed by Reynolds Metals' Can Div. (Richmond, VA). Reynolds uses offset litho, like most aluminum can decorators. But unlike conventional methods, in which inks are kept separate, wet-on-wet printing involves intentionally layering the wet inks to create shades, depth and new colors. Artwork was designed by Mistic, but separations were made by Southern Graphic Systems (Louisville, KY). Reis gives them credit for being able to create line screen values that prevented dot gain from being a problem. Soon to be available nationwide, and sold primarily through convenience stores, each of the four nectars in the line has a suggested retail price of 79¢.

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