What is flexography and what are its advantages?

 

Flexography is a high relief printing technique in which flexible plates are used, which transfers the image directly from the plate to any type of substrate. 

Types of flexography:

There are two types of flexography:

Flexography with water-based inks: Flexo ink is based on applying an ink that evaporates on the surface by heat. First, an ink is transmitted, then it is passed through the oven and then the water evaporates. Finally, the pigment remains on the surface.

Flexography with UV light: It has an instant drying turning the inks into a solid, providing greater physical and chemical resistance.

Advantages of Flexography:

The main advantages offered by flexo printing compared to other printing methods are summarized below:

• ·         Printing ink industry can be used on many types of the substrate with either absorbent surface or non-absorbent surface.
•       This can produce short runs with a good cost/benefit ratio
• ·         Fast and accurate printing at the speed of 300 m / min (3,000 ft/min) or higher 
• ·         Can be used with a wide variety of inks, including water inks, solvent and UV cure 
• ·         Embossed printing plates have a capacity for very long runs, up to several million prints
• ·         Flexographic presses can print with variable print repetition length 
• ·         Extensible, elastic films can be printed without loss of registry

·         Online operation allows printing, cutting and folding, and ending in a continuous process

Also, the capital invested in presses and current operating costs is often lower for flexographic presses compared to offset and engraving. As the flexographic process is ideally suited for shorter runs and as the change and adjustment times are shorter, packaging buyers in globalized markets are turning to flexography to print/convert their global brands locally.

The growth in flexography has been particularly noticeable in the segments of folding cardboard and labels/tags, all over the world, where the installation of flexographic presses to replace older, typographic and offset presses have been evident.