Where To Use Flexographic Printing Machines?
Flexography is a
used for long time in printing industry, especially in packaging industry for a
wide variety of applications. During the last thirty years, this technology has
undergone tremendous changes to withstand other technologies on the test of
quality, speed, flexibility and cost. As the name reflects, the technology is
very flexible and offers versatile printing machines to suit different applications
like printing labels, tags to printing multi-color images and texts. It will be
interesting to overview the advantages of flexography printing technology to
realize its applications and benefits for various printing applications.
Know How Flexographic Printing Works
This direct rotary
printing technique incorporates a flexible relief plate with a raised image of
design to be printed on the substrate. This plate impresses the design on the
substrate in the printing process. The plate can be created using three methods
like exposing polymer to ultraviolet rays, molding or computer aided laser
etching. Once the plate is created, it is mounted on the cylinder and then it
is placed into the press for printing. This basic procedure involves in any flexo
printing machine. Its main advantage is its efficiency in large scale printing
of images or texts. Here are some other prominent advantages of this technology
–
·
Versatility
in printing on a wide variety of surfaces – Flexographic printing allows
printing on porous as well as non-porous surfaces. This advantage has led to
countless applications of flexo printing machine for printing on
papers, cloths, to cardboard or even coloring tiles.
·
Wide
variety of quality inks available for flexographic printing – Earlier there
were limited options for printing surfaces as well as printing inks. The water
based inks used to take some time to dry and this led the need of commercial
dryers to avoid smudging. However; today there is a wide variety of quality
inks that dry quickly or even in no time. These inks are suitable for printing
on different surfaces.
o
The
solvent based inks are suitable for plastic surface and widely used for
printing wallpapers or other commercial uses.
o
Ultraviolet
curing inks are preferred for printing on cellphone or plastic articles.
o
Water
based inks are ideal for porous surfaces like cardboard and paper.
o
Chemical
curing inks need two step procedures but suited for some specific applications.
·
Printing
consistency – The plate is useful in printing millions of prints. The quality
of printing is maintained for first print to last print. Whether you use
plastic or polymer plate, excellent printing consistency is achieved in
flexographic printing. So, no need to rebuild the plate over time and it also
avoids irregularities and variance in the designs.
·
The
best suitable technology for solid color printing – As the ink used in flexo printing machine cures instantly, multiple layers of colors can be applied quickly
where the need of saturation and richness of solid color printing is to be
achieved.
Food industry
package printing is one of the prominent applications of flexographic printing
because of its compliance to governmental norms. Apart from that, flexographic
printing machines are widely used in plenty of commercial and consumer
applications.
