How the flexographic printing plate influences print results
The flexographic printing plate can be described as the heart of flexographic printing, as it has a decisive influence on a label printer's print results and production efficiency. There are well over 40 different flexographic printing plates on the market for label printers, but all of them vary in terms of their properties, print behaviour and manufacturing process.Get more news about Flexographic Flat Printer,you can vist our website!
Consequently, label printers often face the exceptionally difficult task of choosing a suitable printing plate. With this in mind, Gallus spent several weeks investigating and comparing the printing features of all the top-name flexographic printing plates. The results and evaluations ranged from exceptional to unusable. Even if there is no perfect flexographic printing plate for all areas, it was possible to identify a small number of top plates for label printers.
The basics
Most flexographic printing plates are now made of photopolymer; plates made of rubber are much less common. The washing out processes for photopolymer printing plates range from those that use solvents to water and thermal development. However, the majority of photopolymer flexographic printing plates are washed out with solvents or water in the following steps (1-6):There is currently a trend for flat top dots technology in the printing plate industry. These printing plates have a dot that is flat at the top rather than rounded, which leads to more constant and accurate print results.
“Conventional” digitally exposed photopolymer flexographic printing plates generally have a rounded printing point. This is because of the presence of oxygen that has a negative effect on the polymerization of the photopolymer during the UV exposure process and thus causes the dots to shrink.
There are a number of ways to remove the disruptive oxygen from the exposure process. Listed below are four options that are used by printing plate manufacturers.
All printers have their own specific requirements for flexographic printing plates. While one might be focused on a very rapid production time, another may be concerned solely with printing quality. Others might attach a lot of importance to ecological aspects.
Generally speaking, prepress and plate processing have a considerable influence on the print result. However, the most influential factor is the plate material, which is predetermined and cannot be altered by the user.
During printing tests in Gallus' plants, flexographic printing plates made by the top-name manufacturers were printed, examined and compared under identical conditions. These tests revealed huge differences in the print results.
If printing quality is the sole consideration, there are several factors that can determine a good or bad type of printing plate. Print shops searching for the plate that will deliver the best printing result should use print tests to investigate and evaluate the following features at the very least:
