3 – Flexographic Printing

This chapter describes the flexographic printing process. The process involves transferring ink, one color at a time, from the surface of a flexible plate on which an image is represented to a substrate. Additional colors, each registered to the locations of those printed previously, are added. When the plate surface consists of a pattern of dots, the photographic quality of the halftone printing effect is possible. Dot patterns can combine to appear to the eye as colors not represented by the applied ink. The technique is termed flexo process printing. Ink metering involves a doctor blade assembly that wipes excess ink amounts from the cylinder surface to provide careful control of the volume of ink transferred from each cell. Flexo plates use vulcanized rubber or photopolymer materials that are attached to rotating cylinders. Quantitative description of color values.