Flexography is a printing method that utilizes flexible relief plates and is known for its excellent printing quality, wide adaptability to various printing materials, high production efficiency, and compliance with environmental requirements, making it a preferred printing solution for various packaging products.
01. Flexo Printing Principle
During printing, ink is transferred from the ink fountain roller (rubber roller) to the anilox roller (engraved metal roller), and excess ink on the surface of the anilox roller is removed by the ink fountain roller. The ink is then evenly and steadily applied to the surface of the printing plate cylinder by the anilox roller. When the substrate material (such as plastic film) passes between the printing plate cylinder and the impression cylinder, under pressure, the images on the printing plate are transferred onto the substrate material, resulting in clear images.
02. Characteristics of Flexo Printing
Strict Environmental Requirements
Flexo printing uses new water-based inks and solvent-based inks, which are non-toxic and pollution-free, fully comply with the requirements of green environmental protection, and can also meet the requirements of food packaging.
High Production Efficiency
The production speed of flexo printing is usually above 100m/min, and satellite-type flexo printing equipment can reach speeds of over 300m/min. Combined with screen printing, the production speed can reach 60-70m/min, much higher than other printing methods such as letterpress printing and intermittent offset printing, significantly improving production efficiency. Additionally, a flexographic printing machine typically requires only 1-2 operators, greatly reducing labor costs.
Wide Range of Substrate Materials
Materials such as paper (smooth or rough surface), cardboard, corrugated board, and films can all be printed using flexo printing, which has a much broader range of substrates compared to other printing methods such as offset printing, gravure printing, or letterpress printing.
Strong Color Consistency
Flexog printing utilizes a short ink path transfer method, involving only the ink fountain roller, anilox roller, printing plate cylinder, and impression cylinder. Ink transfer through the anilox roller ensures color consistency between batches and even within different batches of printed products.
03. Application Classification
Flexo printing machines are classified into paper box and paper cup, label printing, flexible packaging, and pre-printed carton categories based on their application areas.
Paper Boxes and Paper Cups
Primarily used for printing on cardboard, single or double-sided PE coated paper, for products like paper cups, paper bags, food packaging boxes, and pharmaceutical packaging boxes.
Label Printing
Mainly used for adhesive label printing, these flexographic printing machines are fully equipped, incorporating almost all inline functions such as delamination, reversal, hot stamping, laminating, varnishing, die-cutting, waste stripping, embossing, sheeting, and slitting.
Flexible Packaging
Flexo printing machines for flexible packaging mainly print on paper-based packaging materials such as disposable medical packaging bags, tea packaging paper, food packaging paper, non-woven fabrics, etc. With corona treatment systems, they can also print on plastic films such as PET.
Pre-printed Cartons
Mainly used for pre-printing large batches of packaging cartons.
Paperjoy Paper specializes in the production of PE coated paper rolls, paper cup fans, and other paper cup raw materials. With 18 years of manufacturing experience and utilizing a 6-color flexo printing machine, we print PE coated paper rolls into paper cup fans, supporting printing of 1-6 colors. Our products feature vivid colors, stable quality, and high production efficiency, meeting the demand for rapid delivery. If you have custom requirements for PE coated paper and paper cup fan, please feel free to contact us.
Post time: Jun-07-2024
