Flexographic production is optimized to the end

In the past ten years, China's flexographic printing technology has grown by leaps and bounds. Along with the rapid development of equipment manufacturing technology and printing technology, there has been tremendous progress in product quality, especially the printing of the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Rim. The more concentrated and developed regions are more prominent. However, some printing companies have purchased flexographic equipment. However, due to the lack of mastery in process technology or improper equipment or products, or insufficient production tasks, equipment utilization is not high, product quality is poor, and product profits are low. Received the expected return. This also explains a problem that some printing companies in China have not enough understanding and understanding of flexographic printing, and even some misunderstandings. This further results in blind investment, which leads to the existence of risks. Therefore, it is necessary to further understand the flexographic version. Printing for better use of flexographic printing.

I. Several aspects that should be considered when purchasing flexographic equipment

1. Target product positioning.
Modern printing companies generally have target products or quasi-target products before purchasing equipment. They should consider whether these products are suitable for flexo printing. If the characteristics of these products fall into the flexo printing defect area, the future printing production will be It is very difficult.
2. The target product's requirements for the equipment.
Including the requirements of the design of the equipment on the production process, such as the width, the thickness of the substrate, the number of printing colors, die-cutting, glazing, and post-printing processes, and so on. Today's printing product design requires a variety of printing processes. Many products are not manufactured on one machine using a single process. There are many post-processing operations, such as partial screen printing, hot stamping, embossing, embossing, etc. And other processes. Therefore, the compatibility of the post-processing technology with the flexographic printing machine should be fully considered so as to avoid conflicts and contradictions between the flexographic printing machine and the post-processing process.
3. The configuration of the device.
Modern printing equipment manufacturing is generally designed and manufactured according to customer requirements. Therefore, the configuration is also diversified and flexible. When choosing, we should pay attention to practicality and reliability, and some must have, but do not need to be minimized to avoid wasting investment. On the other hand, if you consider that the product may change, you need to modify the equipment or add hardware, so consider the feasibility of future equipment changes.
4. Economical.
That is, the so-called cost-effectiveness and investment recovery period, because this article focuses on the process technology issues, it will no longer discuss this issue.

Second, the advantages and disadvantages of flexographic printing and limitations

We know that any printing method is not universal and flawless, and the flexo printing process is no exception. There are still many factors affecting its product quality and production efficiency. The advantages of flexo printing mainly include the following aspects:

1. The equipment structure is simple, investment is low, and the equipment is easy to adjust and maintain;
2. High production efficiency, short production cycle, and large range of substrates;
3. Platemaking cycle is short, the cost is lower than the gravure (but more expensive than the PS version);
4. Production raw materials and production processes are environmentally friendly, non-toxic to production operators, and meet special requirements such as non-toxic, harmless and odor-free in food and pharmaceutical packaging;
5. The printed products are colorful and eye-catching, especially with high color saturation in the field.

The inadequacies of flexographic technology are:

1. It is not suitable for continuous adjustment of product printing, especially for finer products that are less satisfactory. Although with the improvement of plate-making technology and the improvement of UV ink application, there is still a gap in offset printing compared with offset printing.
2. The imprinting deformation is large, especially the fine text and fine anti-white lines and text edges are more obvious;
3. Overprint error is relatively large, because its overprinting control is dynamic, so the error is relatively large. With the improvement of equipment automation degree and equipment precision, modern flexo printing machine registration accuracy has made great progress, but some fine high-grade products There is still a gap in comparison with offset printing;
4. The flatness of the appearance of the product is not enough, especially when large-area thin paper is printed on the ground;
5. Some flexo printers consume more energy when printing on a wide range of UV inks.

Third, the flexographic printing production process should pay attention to the problem:

It is a complicated process for a printed product from manuscript design to plate-making and post-press processing to finished product. Any mistakes in any part of the process will lead to irreversible consequences. Printing is the most important part of many links. The ultimate goal of printing production is to produce qualified products with high efficiency, low consumption, and high quality. Factors that affect production efficiency and quality are many.

1. The influence of manuscript design on production is the first step.

For printed matter, the design of the original has already determined which printing method it is suitable for, and it can hardly be changed. If the designed original is not suitable for flexo printing, even if the process design is reasonable, it will not produce people. Very satisfied with the product.

2, the impact of production materials on product quality and efficiency.

Flexo printing as a rotary printing, its print continuity is a basic feature, and to achieve efficient and continuous production requires the excellent quality of various raw materials as a support, if the print quality is interrupted due to raw material quality problems, the production efficiency and product quality There is a serious effect. If the quality of the base paper is not enough, if the tensile strength is not enough, the joint is too much or not firm, the edge is broken, and the unwinding or unevenness of the rewinding will cause the paper breakage stoppage or overprinting, the ink drying performance is not good or the stability is not good. Will affect product output and quality. Therefore, according to the characteristics of products and equipment, selecting high-quality raw materials is the key to improving production, quality and efficiency.

3, the influence of operator proficiency.

As everyone knows, in order to make high-yield high-quality printing, the human factor is very important, therefore, the operator's understanding of the production process and the proficiency of the equipment operation directly affect the product quality and efficiency. In the printing process, we must first ensure that the adjustment of the working position of the equipment is in the best condition, and secondly, the problems appearing at any time in the printing process can be handled in a timely and correct manner. At the same time, the operator should be familiar with the performance characteristics of the ink used in flexo printing and be proficient in mastery. Its adjustment can ensure the smooth progress of production.

4. The quality of the printing plate and the configuration of the anilox roller affect the product quality and efficiency.

The quality of the printing plate will directly affect the product quality and output. First of all, the various types of plates for a variety of inks, substrates and graphics adaptability is different, should be based on different types of graphic products, printing materials, ink selection of the corresponding type of plate. Second, the quality of platemaking directly affects the quality of printing and the printing plate printing rate, especially continuous dots and small texts.

Anilox roller configuration is the basis for quality and efficiency. The anilox roller is the core component of the flexo printer. The role of the roller is ink supply, and its configuration is crucial. The corresponding number of anilox rollers should be configured according to the different characteristics of the product. If the number of lines is too high or too low, the ink supply volume will be too large or too small, and if the ink volume is too large or too small, it will cause many problems in printing. Dirty or color differences in the text further increase waste. The specific basis for configuring the anilox roller is: graphic type, ink type, and substrate type.

The above list is only a part of the factors that affect product quality and production efficiency are multi-faceted, and there will be many unexpected problems in the production process, when the problem arises, the root cause of the problem should be judged from the surface phenomenon analysis, and thus timely Handle the problem accurately.

Fourth, the development direction of flexographic technology

The application of any kind of science and technology will have a process from scratch and further improvement. Flexo printing is no exception. From the printing of aniline in the previous century to today's flexo printing, the flexo process has gone through two centuries of development. As the design of printing and packaging products tends to be exquisite and sophisticated, higher requirements are imposed on flexo printing. In response to these requirements, modern flexo printing equipment also tends to be versatile and complex. That is, a flexo printing machine is not only a flexographic printing but also an offset printing unit, a gravure printing unit, a screen printing unit, a rotary bronzing, and an on-line die-cutting. Convex, etc., which further expand the scope of flexographic products, improve the quality and quality of flexographic products. The development of flexo printing technology has also promoted the development of related industries such as printer manufacturing, ink manufacturing, plate material and plate making technology. This kind of compound flexo press can not fully exert its production capacity in the short term, but with the development and progress of science and technology, the future flexo printing must be efficient, high-quality, low-cost, and create better economic benefits for the company.

Reprinted from: Global Box Industry