What does Flexography mean?
Flexography is a printing system in which we use a flexible board to make continuous printing at high speeds.
It is an area that gives off the graphic arts, it is closely related to graphic design but specialized in the area of continuous printing of flexible materials, such as:
Polypropylene
Polyethylene
Paper
Self-adhesive label
Corrugated cardboard
PVC termoencogible
among others
The History of Flexography began in 1920 in the United States, at least as we know it today, in its early days it was called Anilina Printing.
It was not until 1952 at the Packaging Institute Forum that a vote was taken among suppliers in the country, that it was announced that from that moment on the process would be called the Flexographic Printing Process.
The main raw material is Photopolymer,at Grafiflex SRL, we work with digital photopolymers, which adapt to the substrate printed by our customers and their needs. These plates can be made of vulcanizable rubber or a variety of U.V. light-sensitive polymer resins. Unlike plates used in offset printing, flexographic plates are adaptable and scrollable.
What products do we see Flexography present in?
Flexography is in our daily life, is present in different pharmaceutical products, in the food industry, newspapers, boxes, labels on food bags and many more. in the food and packaging industry allows quality, speed and flexibility, They can print a wide variety of absorbent substrates and not. In addition, fast drying techniques are used, also allowing printing continuous images.
Main Advantages of Using Flexography…… Many!
The main advantage is its speed, it can run print jobs at extremely high speeds.
Print on a wide variety of substrates such as corrugated cardboard, plastic, labels, fabric and metal film. Flexo and flexible storage solutions are perfectly suited to long runs, as well as all additional prints and processes such as varnishing, laminating and die-cutting can be done in a single pass.
It is one of the most economical printing methods with respect to the final product, as it allows for more reproductions at a lower cost.
The process for flexographic printing is as follows:
- The iron is prepared
- Note that the image is inverted form
- The plate fits the platform cylinder
- The substrate is attached to the system
- The anilox cylinder is covered by thousands of holes, receives the ink
- When the Anilox cylinder rotates it comes into direct contact with the iron, where it provides you with the ink in the relief areas
- The already inked plate comes into contact with the substrate
- The printing cylinder serves to keep the substrate in position
- The substrate receives the ink image of the plate being already printed, the type of inks used facilitates its rapid drying.
The world of flexography is considered to be the fastest growing printing system in the future. Since both the equipment and materials that are used have raised the print quality of the flexo, matching or even exceeding Offset printing.