Reference Book
In two roller system the
anilox roller turns directly in
the ink fountain and a doctor
blade is used to remove
excess ink form the anilox
roller. The doctor blade is a
thin metal blade which is
angled to the anilox roller
and cleans excess of ink from
the non-cell areas of the
anilox roller. It helps to produce excellent and even inking of the cells in the
anilox roller.
The image carrying plate is mounted on the plate cylinder and is made of
rubber or photopolymer. The anilox roller ink the relief image plate with a
continuous metered supply of ink. The substrate is fed under controlled tension
against the impression cylinder. The fast drying ink prints on the absorbent or
non absorbent substrate and dries instantly. The recent improvement in the
flexographic inking system is an enclosed dual doctor blade system.
The plate cylinder is designed to hold the flexible flexographic plates through
an adhesive. Flexographic plate size varies with the job to be printed. Several
repeat images are printed in succession from several plates mounted on the
same cylinder. Thus the size of the plate cylinder is chosen to match the repeated
image size i.e., if the image to be printed is 6”, a 12” plate can be used to print
two repeated images. Because the plate cylinder must be changed to match
the plate, the anilox roller must also match the job. Flexo presses are designed
so that the plate cylinder and ink train can be removed easily and installed as a
unit in the press, each time a new job is run.
Outfeed unit
Outfeed unit consists of a rewinder which rewinds the substrate into a roll for
later processing. Some flexo presses are designed in-line with the
manufacturing production line so that printing and packaging can be done as
one continuous operation.Flexographic plates
Flexographic presses use flexible plates with raised images, much like
letterpress image carriers. It can be made of molded rubber or photopolymer
materials and through laser imaging.
The major disadvantage of rubber plates is that they are more costly than
photopolymer plates.