Flexographic printing is a type of letterpress printing. It has a history of more than 100 years. It was originally called “aniline printing†and its definition is: the use of a flexographic printing plate to transfer the anilox roller to the printing plate with uniform ink transfer under the pressure of the equipment. The process on the substrate. During printing, the ink is supplied by the anilox roller, and the ink is transferred to the graphic part of the printing plate which is raised on the printing plate. Then it is transferred to the printing material to form a print on the printing material. Since the printing plate has high elasticity, it can satisfy the printing plate drawing. The requirement for close integration between the text part and the substrate, resulting in a higher ink transfer rate and a clear image.
Flexo printing features:
1): The equipment has a simple structure and adopts an anilox roller ink transfer system. The input ink device is simple
2): The flexographic plate is a photosensitive rubber plate with soft, flexible and elastic characteristics. The Shore hardness is generally between 25-60.
3): The ink used is a low viscosity volatile dry ink with alcohol as the main solvent, drying speed, suitable for flexible high-speed multi-color printing, (non-toxic, non-polluting, fast drying water-based ink use, is extremely beneficial to environmental protection Also meets food hygiene requirements)
4): light pressure printing, letterpress printing pressure is generally close to 30-40KG/CM2 almost no pressure printing, so the printing capacity of the flexographic printing is higher (if the pressure in the printing is not well grasped, will make the text lines appear edge effect, There is a clear demarcation between the edges of the text lines, which makes the prints appear to be uneven. The flexo-printed dots are easy to lose, and the large dots are easy to reconcile. Therefore, the print product level is not too rich and the contrast is large.
5): Good printing quality, due to the use of high-quality flexographic plates, ceramic anilox rollers and other materials, the printing accuracy has reached 175 lines/inch, and has a full ink layer thickness, making the product rich, colorful, in particular Suitable for packaging and printing requirements, he also has the advantages of clear printing, offset printing softness, and gravure ink layer thickness and high gloss characteristics. : The cost of plate making is low, and the plate making cost is the highest in intaglio printing, and the cycle is the longest. Although the flat plate making cost is lower than the flexographic plate, the printing plate printing rate is not as good as the flexographic plate.
6): Due to the flexibility of the plate of the flexographic plate, the printing plate is easily deformed on the circumferential surface of the platen during installation, thus causing errors in the image size and the manuscript. To compensate for this deviation, it is necessary to increase the circumferential size. The printing speed is high, the flexographic plate is light and the printing pressure is small, so it can be printed at high speed, and at the same time, high-speed multi-color printing is realized.
7): The flexographic platemaking cycle is short and the cost is lower than that of other platemaking methods. Although the plate making cost is higher than that of the PS version, it is compensated on the imprinting rate, and the flexographic imprinting rate is generally 500,000. - Between millions (PS version is between 100,000 and 350,000)