subject: Profitable Applications of a Flexo Press [print this page] Profitable Applications of a Flexo Press Profitable Applications of a Flexo Press
Because flexographic printing is typically the least expensive process for printing packages this is the standard application of the vast majority of flexo presses. Flexo printing is gaining a progressively larger share of the printing market because its relative simplicity compared to other processes and its ease of adaptation to using water based inks. There are general and special applications for flexo presses. Both general and special applications are more profitable with a system that manages web tension and web registration as well as minimizing substrate waste.
Standard Applications
Flexo presses are used to print glossy pages in newspapers, comics, catalogs, and advertising inserts. Flexo presses print on a wide variety of packaging substrates. These applications are standard for flexographic presses. Their profitability is very closely tied to managing substrate waste. This means that the press needs to be run efficiently with minimum adjustment stops and a minimum of substrate length used when gaining web registration. An ideal solution to minimizing substrate waste in most common flexo press applications is to use a precise web re-registration and servo driven infeed system. With precise web re-registration a print job can be re-run to add colors, fix design errors without starting a job over again, and do these jobs at full press speed and precise resolution. The problem for the printer is that a new high end servo press can cost from $250,000 to $1,000,000. An ideal solution for the printer is to use an easily attached servo infeed and re-register system made by Rotary Technologies. The Servo 3000 Digital Infeed + Re-register system can do the above jobs for a small fraction of the cost of a new high end servo press.
Profitable Flexo Press Applications Typically Requiring a Servo System
The ability to print multiple passes with high resolution on a flexo press opens the door to many profitable applications. This usually requires a servo system. The easily attached Servo 3000 will re-register the web after a press run of its own or of another press and then allow the press to run at full speed printing at 0.0025 inch (70 micron) resolution. This degree of resolution allows the printer with a four color press to print eight or twelve colors. It allows the printer to go back and fix design errors such as an incorrect bar code without throwing out the entire print job.
Additional applications made possible and profitable with the Servo 3000 include printing multilayer labels or doing finishing work on multilayer labels printed on a digital press. The ability to precisely re-register the web allows a Servo 3000 assisted standard flexo press to hold both the first printed layer and the next layer in precise 0.0025 registration as it prints multiple layers or does the lamination and die cutting for a job run on a digital press.
Seemingly futuristic flexo press applications such as printing flexible electronic circuits become possible with a standard press equipped with the Servo 3000. Because this application requires laying down alternate layers of conducting and insulating inks it needs to be done very precisely in order to be useful. The 70 micron resolution that a Servo 3000 assisted press maintains on subsequent passes allows the press to print products such as rear window defrosters and RFID tags. The printer who equips himself for and learns this flexo press application will be there and ready when the industry approaches its ultimate goal of printing transistors with a flexographic press. The use of the Servo 3000 Digital Infeed + Re-register system made by Rotary Technologies makes a wide variety of potentially profitable applications available to a standard flexo press. The same system will typically also increase profits with a standard press on common printing applications solely through the reduction of material waste.
