Compared with traditional resin letterpress and offset plates, flexographic plate is a photosensitive rubber or resin-type printing plate, which is soft, flexible and elastic. Therefore, in the process of printing production, flexographic plates often have low printing resistance rate due to their different characteristics, difficult plate-making operation control, unstable quality, easy to block plates, high plate-making costs, low number of network lines, etc., which troubles printing workers. Understanding and being familiar with the characteristics of flexographic plates will help to eliminate these phenomena.
Flexographic printing has a wide range of substrates and can be printed on a variety of different substrates such as corrugated boxes, paper, film, etc. Compared to the resin letterpress and offset plates mentioned above, the mechanical strength of flexographic plates is slightly inferior. However, flexographic printing is a printing method that does not need to adjust the ink, uses a reticulated roller that can stably provide the amount of ink to evenly coat the ink layer of a certain thickness on the graphic part of the printing plate, and then transfers the ink layer of the graphic part to the surface of the substrate under the action of the imprint roller pressure to form a clear graphic text.
In this process, the ability to set the "kiss touch" printing pressure stably is a very critical factor for flexographic printing. Therefore, there are many items that printers need to be familiar with in their daily production processes, such as the accuracy and configuration of the printing press, the viscosity of the ink (the pH of the water-based ink), the reproducibility and thickness of the printing plate (the plate-making company), and the elasticity and thickness management of the tape. However, once the relevant characteristics are mastered, it is possible to print as smoothly as conventional resin letterpress and offset printing.
Except for some special plate characteristics, the chemical properties of flexographic plates provided by each plate manufacturer are basically the same. In flexographic printing, according to the different types of printing such as corrugated boxes, flexible packaging (film), labels, paper bags, etc., the corresponding printing presses, inks, etc. will also be different. Although there are various models of plate thickness, hardness, etc., the characteristics are basically the same. Therefore, the printing plates sold by different plate manufacturers, the water-based inks sold by ink manufacturers, solvent inks, and UV inks all adopt a universal design.
It is worth noting that UV inks are different in the formula composition of each manufacturer, so it is recommended to test them before use. On the other hand, inks used for resin letterpress, gravure, and offset printing generally have low resistance. If it is used directly, the physical properties of the printing plate will decrease due to the expansion of the resin.
Not only the progress of flexographic plates, but also the development of computer graphics and laser engraving technology has made it possible to achieve high-precision reproduction technology of 300lpi. But a big factor that affects the quality of a printing plate is the skill of the platemaking technician. In the plate-making room, the daily plate-making equipment, the management of plate-making conditions, and the quality control of the printing plate are very important for the stability of the printing plate quality. By controlling the instability of the platemaking room and managing it with high precision, it is possible to produce high-precision plates. On the other hand, if you don't manage it carefully, it will be difficult to produce high-quality plates, and it will be difficult for the company to be recognized by customers.