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Flexographic Printing
Applications - Process Overview
- Image Preparation - Plate Making -
Printing Presses - Inks - Finishing
Applications:
Flexography is the major process used to print packaging materials.
Flexography is used to print corrugated containers, folding cartons,
multiwall sacks, paper sacks, plastic bags, milk and beverage cartons,
disposable cups and containers, labels, adhesive tapes, envelopes,
newspapers, and wrappers (candy and food).
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Process Overview
In the typical flexo printing sequence, the substrate is fed into the
press from a roll. The image is printed as substrate is pulled through a
series of stations, or print units. Each print unit is printing a single
color. As with Gravure and Lithographic printing, the various tones and
shading are achieved by overlaying the 4 basic shades of ink. These are
magenta, cyan, yellow and black. Magenta being the red tones and cyan
being the blue.
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The major unit operations in a flexographic printing operation are:
- Image preparation
- Platemaking
- Printing
- Finishing
Below is a process flow diagram for flexographic printing:
Image Preparation
Image preparation begins with camera-ready (mechanical) art/copy or
electronically produced art supplied by the customer. Images are captured
for printing by camera, scanner or computer. Components of the image are
manually assembled and positioned in a printing flat when a camera is
used. This process is called stripping. When art/copy is scanned or
digitally captured the image is assembled by the computer with special
software. A simple proof (brown print) is prepared to check for position
and accuracy. When color is involved, a color proof is submitted to the
customer for approval.
Flexographic Plate Making
Flexographic and letterpress plates are made using the same basic
technologies utilizing a relief type plate. Both technologies employ
plates with raised images (relief) and only the raised images come in
contact with the substrate during printing. Flexographic plates are made
of a flexible material, such as plastic, rubber or UV sensitive polymer
(photopolymer), so that it can be attached to a roller or cylinder for ink
application. There are three primary methods of making flexographic
plates; photomechanical, photochemical and laser engraved plates.
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Flexographic Printing Presses
The five types of printing presses used for flexographic printing are
the stack type, central impression cylinder (CIC), in-line, newspaper
unit, and dedicated 4-, 5-, or 6-color unit commercial publication
flexographic presses. All five types employ a plate cylinder, a metering
cylinder known as the anilox roll that applies ink to the plate, and an
ink pan. Some presses use a third roller as a fountain roller and, in some
cases, a doctor blade for improved ink distribution.
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Flexographic Inks
Flexographic inks are very similar to packaging gravure printing inks
in that they are fast drying and have a low viscosity. The inks are
formulated to lie on the surface of nonabsorbent substrates and solidify
when solvents are removed. Solvents are removed with heat, unless U.V.
curable inks are used.
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Finishing
After printing, the substrate may run through a number of operations to
be "finished" and ready for shipment to the customer. Finishing
may include operations such as coating, cutting, folding and binding.
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