In the past 10 years, research on anilox rollers has always been the focus of research on flexographic printing processes. From the finer point of the network and the arrangement of new network points to the more precise engraving technology, the quality of the anilox roll has been continuously improved.
In recent years, with the application of YAG and CO2 laser light source engraving technology, the development of anilox rollers has been pushed to a higher level. The latest developments in anilox roll technology stem from the high demands for finer and better color expression of flexographic prints, as well as adaptation to emerging new print materials. Although the application of new technology still has a gradual learning process and investment that requires a lot of money, it does provide opportunities for creating higher value.
In an ever-growing market
The colorfulness of plastic packaging has been widely recognized around the world and has attracted attention. Bright and delicate printed images have brought a new concept of “value added†to the packaging and printing industry. At the same time, however, printers are under market pressure to require greater product print quality and print more color prints. The result of this market development trend requires that the printing industry must now properly define, distinguish and evaluate its printing capabilities.
Today, most of the outstanding printers are able to meet the requirements of field and line image printing. However, in recent years, the emergence of printing paper called "ultra-high quality" has had a new impact on the printing market. This kind of paper is specially used for printing of complicated line drawings and color images, complicated coloring patterns and printing of high-line number prints. Although this type of Indian print still only occupies a small share of the printing market and may not be more than 5% of the global printing business, it is expected that this type of printing will increase by a factor of 10 over the next five years.
Flexographic printing now faces the customer's desire for higher-quality prints, but it still requires a crisis of previous print prices. If the printers are not prepared enough to prepare for this situation, this crisis may become a reality. In order to cope with this sudden potential crisis, the printing industry must put a certain amount of money into high-quality printing after evaluating new printing materials and traditional printing materials. On the one hand, high-quality prints contribute to the promotion of products; on the other hand, to achieve high-quality printing standards, there will be higher costs, and such high standards are necessary for competitiveness in the market area. Color, design, printing, or sales, or any one of these elements, is not justified in isolation. If you want to succeed in the market, you need to think carefully in every aspect to produce high-quality printing products.
The printer may have his own opinion as to what the print should look like, but he is not the first to discuss it with the person in charge of the production, because they are not the main force in the promotion. For the operator, it is extremely important to be able to realistically accept the customer's view of high quality packaging printing requirements.
Operators should fully understand the color, lines, or color of the package. Sales staff can easily understand that the success of print sales is achieved through people's visual, auditory and tactile stimuli. The question is whether operators know that the use of packaging printing colors, pattern designs or packaging shapes and their effective combination can achieve the purpose of promotion. .
Customers are often more willing to distinguish products effectively by the color of product packaging. For products packaged in paper boxes, they must rely on printed images and different colors to help people identify products. If operators cannot understand the promotional effect of printed colors, they cannot expect them to pay sufficient attention to color in printing. . Therefore, operators must remember that it is not enough to just print "people acceptable" prints.
Nowadays, a large number of box-makers require high-quality line and color printing. For this reason, printing companies have made large investments in plate making, printing machines and auxiliary systems, but the most important ones are printing machines, printing plates, inks and printing. Operational commitments. The acquisition of high-quality prints is an in-depth understanding and monitoring of the entire printing production chain from papermaking to final printing. Strict quality control and monitoring are required at every link in the print production chain. Because of this, high quality prints have their high value content.
For high-quality printing, there is no question of using cheap paper, nor can it be opportunistic. Each printer must pay for what it wants. Although some paper procurement professionals have paper expertise, when sourcing paper for high-quality flexographic printing, it is also necessary to understand the interaction between printing ink and paper, which is often overlooked. Flexographic printing uses water-based inks, and the paper also has a certain moisture content. The printing reaction between the two is very important for the printing process, but paper manufacturers sometimes do not consider the requirements of the printer. Unless printers can force papermakers to reduce paper quality fluctuations and improve paper quality, at least to ensure that the paper moisture balance, otherwise the printer will not be better.
More advanced substrates, finer anilox rollers
Until now, we haven't talked about the topic of this article - Anilox. This is conscious. We mainly want to emphasize that managers and employees must have team spirit. In addition, in the past we seem to be paying too much attention to printing inks, plates, anilox rollers and printing presses. In fact, as an important part of the printing production chain, printing materials are also very important.
In the development of printing materials, printing plates, and inks, how to accurately transfer the precise amount of ink to the printing plate has an important influence on the quality of the printed image. The development of anilox rollers provides printers with the basis for more accurate metering of inks and better print quality. However, the main disadvantage of the anilox roller is its low resistance to mechanical wear. With the development of modern closed-type squeegee system, the surface of the anilox roller is required to be more wear-resistant. Practice has proved that in order to obtain a stable high-quality image, a laser-engraved ceramic anilox roller should be used.
The laser-engraved anilox roller can reduce the area of ​​the net wall, so that there are more holes in the area per square inch, and the anilox roller has a higher number of screen lines. The thinner the ink film is delivered, the easier it is to control the printing dots. If advanced double-beam laser engraving technology is used, an even higher number of anilox rolls can be obtained.
The latest technology to improve the level of laser engraving is to use YAG laser light source, which replaces the traditional CO2 laser light source, and the high number of anilox rollers carved out of the need for polishing.
As a result of the improved quality of the anilox roll, a thinner, more uniform ink film can be transported to the printing plate. At the beginning of this article, we mentioned the "shift of focus." In the initial stage of the anilox roller engraving research, people mainly concentrated a great deal of time and energy on how to create a perfect geometric shape of the cell. At the time, this was absolutely necessary. However, it caused the anilox roller maker to ignore the problem of the anilox roller itself. This is one of the factors that are critical to the impact of the various results anilox rollers expect. . The anilox roll looks simple, so people often overlook the anilox roll substrate and have little interest in studying the anilox roll part. In fact, the anilox roller is one of the most important components in a flexo press.
It is at this point that the development of printing on the flexo version has shifted its focus. The focus has shifted from the study of the geometry of the anilox roller network to the reduction of the deflection of the anilox roller and other rollers. It has been fully realized that the deflection of the roller has a great influence on the uniformity of the ink layer. .
The result of the study is the application of carbon fiber technology. The application of carbon fiber materials is not limited to anilox rollers and can be applied to various types of rollers. The use of carbon fiber materials allows the anilox roll to have a low moment of inertia, high stiffness, light weight, and low kinetic energy (see Table 1 for properties of carbon fiber material anilox rolls). With this advanced material, a uniform ink film can be obtained on the substrate.
Table 1 Performance Comparison of Carbon Fiber Material and Steel (Roller Outside Diameter: 10.33 inches, Roll Length 110.00 inches)
Performance Category Steel Carbon Fiber Material Weight (lbs) 1310 85
Strength (PSI×106) 30.0 59.0
Inertia 418.31 145.80
Dynamic balance resistance does not require deflection under zero load Master 18.6 1.7
Master deflection 19.0 2.0 under squeegee load
Deflection under maximum working load 27.0 13.0
Many flexo printing presses could have run faster, but the speed of the entire press has been limited by the critical speed of the steel roll. Carbon fiber materials can reduce plate runout due to their ability to withstand natural vibrations at high speeds. Obviously, improving the speed of printing presses means increasing productivity and gaining higher profits.
In fact, the benefits of changing the materials used for the anilox roller are not limited to increasing the printing speed. Carbon fiber rollers not only help to increase the line speed, reduce the consumption and improve the printing quality, but also meet the ergonomic requirements. Since the weight of the carbon fiber roller is generally only 1/10 of that of the steel roller (see Table 2), it is not necessary to use lifting equipment during loading and unloading, which greatly reduces the labor intensity of the operator.
Table 2 Comparison of weights of anilox rollers
Uses Category Traditional Steel Anilox Rollers Carbon Fiber Anilox Rollers Narrow (3 inches OD x 18 inches wide) 77 7
Wide (5.5 inches OD x 50 inches wide) 519 49
Corrugated paper (10 inches outside diameter x 98 inches width) 1460 115
In addition, in other applications, carbon fiber technology has advantages in the application of shafts, feed rollers, plate cylinders, and paper guide rollers. The carbon fiber guide roller can respond to the speed change of the web in a timely manner, thereby reducing paper wrinkle and dot distortion. But not using this high technology will certainly be able to print first-rate prints. If you want to continue to be successful in sales, you must ensure that all employees really understand how to work hard to get high-quality print. This requires not only training and practical investment, but also management commitment.
We have noticed that most successful sales in the past have been based on the advantages of increasing the number of prints and lowering the price of printing. Printing companies can only make money if their production capacity is fully utilized and maintenance time is as low as possible. Previously, the most important weapon for printers to win a living source is often to reduce prices. Now this view should be changed.
High quality printing must correspond