With the increasing demand for packaging printing, the number of units was also launched quite a lot. Therefore, technologies are also more diversified and developed to meet the needs of customers. Here we will share with you flexo printing methods.
1. Flexo printing concept
Flexo printing (Flexography) is a method of direct printing based on embossing and the ink is supplied to the mold thanks to a shaft system called anilox. Flexo helps to print printed elements such as images, letters ... on the printed mold higher than the non-printing elements. In particular, the images on the printed mold must be in the opposite direction of the anilox axis. Then, through the printing press process that transmits the flexo ink directly onto the media.
2. What is the principle of flexo printing?
Flexo printing technical principle lies in the anilox axis. This is a metal shaft with a concave surface engraved with many small cells. As a result, the flexo ink is fed to the mold easily. When the shaft is partially immersed in the ink tray, the ink will follow small cells on the shaft surface to go inside. Residual flexo ink on the surface will be brushed off with the ink wiper.
Besides, to complete the flexo printing technique, specialized printing molds are required. This printing mold is made of Photopolymer resin. The prints are made by photochemical, direct computer CTP or laser engraving. At the beginning of the printing process, the print plate contacts the media and receives ink from cells on the surface of the printing roller, and then transfers it onto the media. As a result, characters such as images or letters will be embossed on the printed material quickly and in contrast to the image on the printed plate.
3. Why choose flexo printing?
High automation
When the mold is ready, printing is done automatically. Materials such as paper, plastic, paperboard ... will be dyed with ink rolls. When fully printed, the mold automatically separates the designs into preset dimensions without the need for manual intervention from humans.
Flexo printing saves money
For fully automatic flexographic printing technology, there is no labor cost. The cost associated with flexographic printing is the cost of the prints: each color of the label requires a separate copy, the more color plates it costs the more. Therefore, if printing in large quantity, the lateral limbs will decrease significantly
Fast
With the most modern flexo printers, it has a fast printing speed of up to 750 meters / min corresponding to 45km of finished products printed in an hour. With this process, printing products are produced quickly, accurately and with high quality.
Low price
Compared with offset printing technology, flexo printing has a much cheaper price with very good ink grip, not fast, no color smudging and easy printing on many materials. For the plate can be detachable to print the sample very convenient.
Currently, offset printing technology is a printing technology which is very popularly applied in commercial printing, with large quantity, producing fast products with few errors, thus being highly appreciated by the market.
4. Application of Flexo printing technology
If printing as images, the Flexo printing technique may not produce as high a print quality as some other printing technologies. Usually flexo printing usually uses a blend color (solid color) with an anilox axis that guides the ink, so the advantage is that the product quality when printed is uniform and has a strong color because of using T’ram 150DPI. Therefore, it is used a lot to print cartons. Cartons printed to this technique all have eye-catching images, fast production time and affordable prices.
The flexo printing technique is widely used and has great potential for growth thanks to its large production progress, fast printing capacity and ability to print on roll materials for all lines. automatic sealing machine.
Today, flexo printing technique is being applied quite widely, with a lot of potential for its development, in the future, this technology will be more popular. One of the biggest advantages for flexo printing technology is that it uses an automatic system immediately after printing, completely outstanding compared to other printing technologies. If the media is decal, the excess parts of the product will also be peeled off the base.
The flexographic printing method is an appropriate choice to print labels, stickers, stamps, labels, labels, packages, cartons, and print on many special materials such as fabric, cardboard or printing on polymer films ...
Hope the above sharing will help you understand more about flexo printing method. Based on these characteristics you can consider whether it is suitable for your needs or not. From there, it is easy to choose the right technology to produce the best product.
