Table of Contents
How does a flexographic printer work?
How Flexographic Printing Works: Ink is introduced to an anilox roller which picks up the ink. This roller then transfers the ink to a flexible, raised-relief image plate wrapped around a cylinder. This cylinder then lays the graphic onto the label paper as it passes through the press at a high speed.
What is flexographic machine?
Flexo printing machine has a high speed printing process and makes use of fast-drying inks. Such printing machine can print on a range of absorbent & non-absorbent materials and can print in continuous patterns. Flexographic Printing Machines produce high quality, finer and clear impressions on different substrates.
What can you make with flexographic printing?
Flexography is a modern high-speed printing process suitable for most packaging and label applications….Flexographic printing also allows for printing on various substrates, including:
- Paper.
- Plastic film.
- Corrugated cardboard.
- Non-woven fabric.
- Metallic surfaces.
- Multilayered film composites.
What are the disadvantages of flexography?
On the downside, flexographic printing is not very advanced. It cannot produce complicated and extensive artwork as compared to that produced by rotogravure printing. The colors in the final product of flexographic printing are neither as bold nor as crisp as they are in rotogravure printing.
Why is flexography used?
Flexography has been widely used as a quick and economical way of applying simple designs and areas of colour to a wide variety of packaging materials, such as paper and plastic containers (including waxed-paper ones), corrugated-cardboard boxes, tape, envelopes, and metal foil.
What are the advantages of flexography?
An advantage of flexography is that is a fast and economical method to print relatively simple designs on stand up packaging.
- It supports a range of colors.
- It can be used with water-based inks as well as oil-based inks. Currently water-based inks are popular because of their non-toxicity.
What ink is used in flexography?
Among the fluid inks used in flexography are aniline inks (aniline dyes dissolved in alcohol or some other volatile solvent), polyamide inks, acrylic inks, and water-based inks.
Who uses flexographic printing?
A graphic designer, writer, and artist who writes about and teaches print and web design. Flexography is a modern version of letterpress printing. This traditional method of printing can be used on almost any type of substrate, including corrugated cardboard, cellophane, plastic, label stock, fabric, and metallic film.
Is flexography printing expensive?
Ink costs & material costs are relatively low, with no special coatings required. Despite the cost of the plates, the long-term price per unit printed is consistently low compared to other mainstream printing methods and only moderately higher on low volumes compared to Digital offerings.
What are flexographic plates made of?
Originally, flexo plates were made from rubber, but are today made from photopolymer material in sheet form – which differentiates them from the fixed metallic printing plates of offset printing. The plates are flexible enough to be wrapped around cylindrical print/plate rollers.