Flexography is a method which allows ink printing on several surfaces quickly and efficiently. It is leading other types of printing like screen printing, because flexography allows faster and larger volume printed goods.
Flexography method
It is important to use flexograpy for barcode printing solutionsince flexography is a simple method. It starts with collecting maximum liter of ink in the container which is in constant access to the printer. The ink is constantly fed to the machine in bulk to keep the printing process constant and steady. Later ‘anilox’ rolls to collects ink on the press. Anilox is cylindrical in shape which contains numerous microscopic recesses designed for retaining ink. These shapes include:
1. Pyramid recesses
2. Truncated pyramid recesses or
3. Xagonal shaped cells .
For large scale production, flexography allows higher level of automation and minimal operator influence during printing which help producing at economical costs. Basically, it transfer liquid ink on the raised surface of photopolymer printing plate which contains the image which is to be printed, then it is transferred to the substrate for creating a reproduction of the image. The circumference of the cylinder is enveloped with the printing plate with the help of double sided tape, it allows nonstop printing without resetting the machine after every print cycle.
Advantage of Anilox
The advantage of using an anilox in barcode printing solution is its retention of a large amount of ink, which will result in increasing the in transfer amount and thickness of printed width by metering the amount of ink transferred to printing plates.
Anilox Metod
Various methods use different shapes of cell and recess volume, which is to print single color on a large area, an anilox carrying a large volume of ink can easily disperse ink ready to use. As soon as anilox is filled with ink or ‘inked-up’, it transfer ink on the plate to the image areas and thin plate on the substrate.
The final printed product may look like single layer, but it consists of many layers, which has used different printing stations. One flexography machine consist of up to 10 printing stations, but generally a machine has 4 to 6 stations. There is a specified force which an anilox uses for transferring ink on the plate. The force is controlled manually because it affects the overall printing quality of the product. Greater force can ruin the plate, resulting in loss of detail and defecting ‘halos’. Whereas, if the amount of force is less, the insufficient ink will be transferred for image creation, the volume of anilox required is dictated by ink properties, the ink film thickness requirement and geometry of the image to be printed.
When anilox is transferring the ink on the printing plate, it then transfer to substrate (on which material is getting printed) which is pulled through as the anilox and printing cylinders are turning.Just like anilox force, printing force is very essential in the printing process for avoiding imperfect printing. Barrelling is the name used for the printing forces effects.
This article is written by Stephanie