How to use flexographic printing

1. Play the advantages of flexo

Under the market economy, various printing methods will exert their respective advantages to compete, survive, and develop. Most of the lithographic printing is now a high-speed 4-color machine with more than 15,000 sheets/hour, which is very suitable for printing rectangles and squares. After printing, it is convenient to cut with a knife. Alien trademarks are now also lithographic, and hundreds of die cuts are also possible. However, some alien trademarks require indentation, bronzing, UV glazing, multiple printing methods, or require environmental protection. There is no advantage in lithographic printing. Therefore, flexographic printing should take advantage of in-line production, environmental advantages, light pressure, and The advantages of multiple materials, low base material requirements, and cost reduction.

2. Efforts to reduce costs

Because the flexographic printing plate is made of non-metallic rubber, it can be compressed and deformed. This feature is not available in other printing methods. Printing plates can be compressed and deformed, which has both advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages must be overcome, and the benefits must be fully exerted so that development can be achieved in competition. Why woven bags, corrugated paper, napkins, these surfaces are very rough, rugged base material flexo printing, and other methods can not be printed, because the flexo printing plate has a soft compression and deformation characteristics and good elasticity characteristics. Therefore, the smoothness of the surface of the base material of the flexo printing is not required to be high, and the requirements for printing and embossing are high, so the cost can be reduced.

Flexo printing is light pressure, which is not available in other printing methods. The strength of napkins is very low. Other printing methods cannot print, and flexo printing can print. This also shows that the flexographic requirements for base materials are very low. The West still maintains a flexible version of the press report. Among these factors are the use of low base material strength requirements, which can reduce grammage (52 grams for plain printing and 40 grams for flexo printing) and can reduce costs. It is said that flexo printing is an annual report and the paper cost is very considerable. Now that webs are priced in tons, a reduction in grammage equals an increase in length, which is equivalent to an increase in the number of trademarks or packaging. Is this not to reduce costs?

3. Pay attention to the use and training of operators

Flexo printing has developed in the past few years, and it also feels lack of operators and the need to improve the technical level of operators. In this case, the relevant state departments are also concerned about, and should also arouse the attention of the industry and business leaders. The previous promotion of flexographic printing was simple and easy to operate. It was a relative lithographic printing. There are more than 10 to 23 ink rollers in the lithographic printing press, as well as ink and ink balance, Feida, ink volume control, etc. It is indeed more complicated than flexo printing. But the operation of the flexo press also has many unique features, such as the printing pressure, the tension of the base material, and the skill of discriminating the quality, as well as the working principle and operation experience of the plate, substrate, ink, anilox roller, and double-sided adhesive. . At present, the design speed of the unit type flexo press is 150 m/min, but the domestic operation is less than 100 m/min, and the foreign equipment with good performance is more than 200 m/min. The speed is the benefit if the speed is low. If the speed is only 70 meters/minute to 80 meters/minute, it is too low. Therefore, business leaders must pay attention to the use and training of operators.

4. Play a team spirit

Flexographic printing has not been used in China for a long time. There is no smooth printing and gravure printing. Although flexographic workers in China continue to work hard to explore, the lack of experience is inevitable. In particular, the units that have just been launched will encounter more problems. As the saying goes, experience is technology. Because of lack of experience, it will be difficult and difficult to solve. However, some units have long been resolved. If there is a unit recently, contact our Flexo branch. After printing their products, they will be dried in an oven and the paper will be upturned. The users are very opinionated. We will say: This question Shanghai People's Printing Factory It has long since been resolved. Before printing, water is used on the back of the paper. Therefore, the units that have just been flexo-printed should exert their team spirit and communicate.

In the past two years, some equipment manufacturers and distributors have contacted the plate-making, ink, anilox and other units for one-stop service, which is very favorable for the new units that are being flexibly printed. We are also pleased to see that in our organization's activities, the factory managers communicate with each other and discuss technologies. Now, the Flexo Club organizes the captains of flexo printing every year. This is also a good platform. In addition to participating in learning, the captains can also meet many colleagues and encounter problems in the future to communicate. "Transfer rubber" and "concave soft" also require a team spirit to turn it over (this is also a good way to open up the market). Flexographic printing now accounts for a small proportion of people and is at a disadvantage. It also needs to promote team spirit. We have always advocated paying attention to exchanges and will accelerate the development of flexo printing so that everyone can get more benefits.

5. Attach importance to selecting platemaking units and selecting raw and auxiliary materials

Platemaking has a direct bearing on the quality of printed products. We do not want to be free of plate printing. The key is the quality of platemaking. In particular, for high-demand prints or cable screens, we must choose a good platemaking unit. They will fully consider the plate quality and the printing process or use the CTP plate making, and they will not be driven by low prices.

The quality of printed products is often not based on equipment or operating technology. China's printing equipment, plate making equipment, and technical level are not bad, but many prints are less than foreign ones. Some merchants have not yet realized the importance of packaging printing quality. Instead of overcharging the printing price, they are constantly reducing prices. Some printing units competed for the market by reducing the printing price by cutting corners and materials, so that they could not improve the quality of packaging and printing. To ensure quality, choose raw and auxiliary materials. Now the price of ink is very different. The key is choosing the hue, color density, gloss and viscosity. The flexo printing industry should be vigilant to smash up its own market. As a result, everyone has no benefit.

Units that have already applied flexographic printing should continue to work hard to consolidate flexo printing and develop flexographic business. Specialized personnel are required to manage quality and technology, support the transfer of management and operational talents to the industry, and participate in exchanges. Compared with the European and American countries in terms of flexo printing, China's print quality is close to the international level, but the gap between the number and application of high technology is still very large. Europe and the United States have generally used CTP plate making, simplified printing plates, rapid plate change, closed double doctor blade ink chamber, UV ink, thin printing plate, rotation speed 200m/min to 300m/min, satellite type flexo printing machine, automatic paper receiving, High-performance shaftless, gearless drive flexo presses. We believe that companies will seize the opportunity to develop flexo.

Reprinted from: China Print Information Network