Flexographic Printing Plates and Important Part of Flexographic Printing Process

Flexographic printing that is being used widely today is an improved version of letterpress printing. In this process flexographic printing plates are used for the process of printing.

london, United Kingdom (prHWY.com) March 2, 2013 - Flexographic printing that is being used widely today is an improved version of letterpress printing. In this process flexographic printing plates are used for the process of printing. Since for each color you need a plate the printing press will have a number of plates that is equal to the number of colors that are being used in the print. Used for the first time in a press in Liverpool in 1890 this process is now improved to be able to print high quality pictures in addition to text. In this method of printing, both rubber printing plates and printing plates made from photopolymer are the most popular in the industry.

Creation of flexographic printing plates is the most important part of this printing process. For each color a negative films is made first. In case the plate is made out of polymer the next step is to lay the negative film on top of the polymer plate and expose it to a UV light. The areas that are exposed to the UV light the polymer will soften and the plate is washed in chemicals to remove the softened polymer to obtain the finished plate. There are occasions where rubber printing plates also are being used in the flexographic process.

Mounting the flexographic printing plates on the printing machine is a precision job. You need experienced printing technicians to do it. The reason is that each of the printing plates that carry different colors should align perfectly in order to have the correct demarcation of inks. If this is not done properly either there will be white spaces or there will be places where printing inks of different colors overlapping. This is common to all kinds of printing plates including the rubber printing plates often used in this process of printing.

Once the flexographic printing plates are mounted on the printing machine the printing process could start. The ink is transferred to the printing plate with an ink roll which is immersed halfway in the ink tank. There is a metering roll between the ink roller and the printing plate that helps the printing plate to have the exact volume of ink. In case more ink is left in the plates the image printed could get smudged. If it is too thin then the printing may not have the right intensity of color. Both rubber printing plates and polymer printing plates are used in this process.

Flexographic process is widely used today for printing. The plates are made using both digital and analogue methods. Since the print quality depends mainly on the quality of the printing plates it is necessary to get your printing plates made by a reputed company. When you do so, it will not be a difficult task for you to come out with a high quality color print. The skills of the technicians who install the printing plates on rollers also play an important part in the final quality of the prints. Presently quite a few different materials are used for the creation of these printing plates.

Flexographic printing plates http://mono-plate.com/ are made out of several materials. Rubber printing plates http://mono-plate.com/rubber-printing-plates/ are just one of them. They are made out of photopolymer as well.

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Tag Words: rubber printing plates, flexographic printing

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